28/365: Irresponsible Captain Tylor

Tylor is that guy you hate and love at the same time. You hate him cause he just seems to stumble his way into awesome thing after awesome thing. You love him cause he's adorable and lazy and fun and he just seems to stumble his way into awesome thing after awesome thing.

I owned both the entire anime series and OAV series on VHS tape once upon a time. I got them at an amazing sale even though I'd never seen any of them and had no clue whether I'd like them or not. Lucky for me I totally loved the show and was happy to have spent my money on it.

The animation is old school and hand drawn. The characters have pointy faces and silly hair. The character costumes don't always make perfect sense. The dubbed voices don't always seem to match up with what you expect from the characters they are matched with.

Still. Irresponsible Captain Tylor is a wonderfully good time. Tylor joins the space military specifically to get out of having to get a real job. He thinks his life will be easy peasy once he joins up, and the recruitment officer is so confused and bedazzled by Tylor's lunacy that he goes along with it. Several minutes later Tylor is captain of a ship (because why not) and wackiness (of course) ensues.

While you can imagine all the comedy this show contains, there are also some really good serious, emotionally complex moments throughout the series. Especially later on in the original series. I haven't gotten through all of the OAVs yet but I have a feeling it has a similar story-telling style.

This is a good show with a lot more depth than it at first appears. It might not be as pretty and flashy as anime today, but it makes up for it with a great story, fun characters, and a whole lot of heart.

27:365: Chrome Shelled Regios

Oh fer cryin' out loud! The Big Bads in this series have a really stupid name. Contaminoids? Really? That's the best you could come up with? They do look horrible and they make some icky sounds and they do a regeneration thing that is creepy, but it is just so hard to take something seriously when the name makes me want to laugh every time someone says it.

But hey, that sexy voice from Kaze no Stigma popped up in this show so it gets points for that. Probably not enough to help it out after the stupid name for the Big Bads. But at least a little bit.

Holy crap, the hair in this series is ridiculous! It goes above and beyond normal silly anime hair and reaches epic new heights (sometimes literally) of absurdity. Seriously? Who comes up with this stuff?

So stupid name for the main enemy, ridiculous looking character designs, and one or two sexy voices. I'm not sure this particular anime is gonna be able to do it for me. I want to look past the silly business in the beginning but it is definitely a struggle.

Which is kind of sad really cause usually I love the post-apocalyptic stuff. All those nasty wastelands full of deadly creatures and tribes of leftover humans trying to figure out how to scrape by from day to day without becoming monster chow. Or having to submit to bigger, stronger humans bent on world domination.

And really I don't mind the fight scenes in this series, or most of the serious talking scenes, but the show devolves into overly dramatic silliness on a regular basis and that just annoys me. Too much screaming and talking fast and blushing and fainting in clouds of smiling steam.

Ugh.

Anyways this show seems to be about a kid with super fighting skills who enrolls in this school/city where they are all about the super fighting skills. Even though he doesn't want to fight anymore he gets sucked into that world of Big Bads and evil humans and super fighting nonsense.

I don't know. I got more sucked in as the first episode went on, and I am mildly curious to see what happens next. But I can't guarantee I'll watch the entire series. The cons still outweigh the pros for me at this point.

26/365: Fairy Tail

This show wasn't at all what I expected from the opening. Which is a good thing, cause I really didn't expect to like it. There was this narrator doing his thing about wizards and lands far far away and it seemed kind of Disney-ish and hokey to me.

But once the story really started and I started laughing, I got over my first impression. Go me! I'm like mature and shit.

So the story basically revolves around this blonde wizard girl (with Ayano's voice from Kaze no Stigma which made me immediately like her) who wants to join the Fairy Tail wizard guild cause they're like, the coolest guild ever! (Or so Sorcerer Monthly Magazine would have us all believe.) She randomly runs into a wizard from the guild, helps him out, gets saved by him in turn, and then tags along with him when he returns to the guild. The zany adventures go from there.

And what zany adventures they be. The big thing about the Fairy Tail guild is just how destructive they are when working wizarding jobs. They destroy enemies, ships, harbors, mountains, towns, and their own guild hall on a regular basis.

It's hilarious. Just the intro to the other wizards in the guild hall was pretty funny. It shouldn't have been because of the way it was set up, but this show is just so good-natured in its camp and silliness that it comes off pretty well.

Sure there are some moments where things get all serious and backstory-ish. That part was a little cloying, but it didn't last too long before things were all destructive and fun again. I'd watched my way through several episodes before even realizing that it happened. If that isn't the sign of a worth-watching show I don't know what is.

PLUS the dude who did Kazuma's voice in Kaze no Stigma pops up in Fairy Tail as well. I quite like that voice (mhmmm) and am happy to hear it whenever I can (girl moment, can't be helped).

25/365: Samurai Champloo

I'm a couple days behind. I know it and it sucks but it can't be taken back now so I'm moving on.

How adult and emotionally mature of me.

Samurai Champloo is so badass. I am happy to see that even though it's been years since I watched it before it has retained all of its awesome.

Some shows really don't. We won't go into it now because I've gone into it before.

But yeah.

This show, however, is still badass. The music is still great. The story is still funny and deep and sometimes kind of dark. The characters are still hilarious assholes.

Yep, Samurai Champloo totally retains its awesome.

The story basically follows Muugen, Jin, and Fuu, three reluctant ... friends I guess? ... who are traveling together looking for a samurai that smells of sunflowers and having lots of wacky adventures along the way.

Sometimes even wacky tabacc-y adventures, but I digress.

Watching this series is entertaining and fun and sometimes educational. The animation style is an interesting mix of loose and sloppy alongside detailed and clean. Not my favorite but it really works with the story it's paired up with.

If I was going to recommend an anime to someone new to the party or someone who'd never seen anime before, this is probably one of the first shows I'd name. It has a little something for everyone, and really is just so dang badass it would be hard for anyone to resist. 

24/365: Inari Konkon

This is the first really new anime I've ever gotten to watch. So new in fact that only one episode has been released so far in the US. I've watched series that were released slowly in this country, a few episodes at a time on VHS or DVD, but they weren't really new. Just new HERE.

It's kind of cool. I like this modern age quite a bit sometimes.

Anyhoo, this show was very cute and I wasn't sure I'd like it cause of all the cute stuff and the middle school characters and they adorable scream-y business. But in the end I liked it quite a bit actually. The funny stuff was really funny, the anime in-jokes were awesome (the main character's "spell" to activate her powers was based right off Sailor Moon on purpose and I laughed out loud), and the story really wasn't too bad.

Basically it revolved around a young girl who makes a silly wish in order to win the heart of a young boy. When that wish can't be taken back, she is given some god powers to make up for it. I'll have to assume hilarious situations will arise from that later on. As there is only one episode of the show right now, I can't know much else.

Even the Wikipedia entry had summaries for only the first and second episodes. I can't even cheat and read ahead to see what happens next.

Kind of a new feeling experiencing a show an episode at a time without an opportunity to spoiler it for myself. I'm pretty amused by the whole thing.

23/365: Durarara

I'm not sure I paid as close enough attention to this show as I should have. To be honest it's been a long week and I had some drinks with dinner and now I'm not focusing as well as I want to. So I'll have to try this again at a later date when my attention span is longer than a couple of minutes.

I will try this again, I know that at least. The animation style reminds me of that seen in Eureka 7 but the story seems to be its own thing. I couldn't follow all of the stuff about areas of Tokyo, but I could follow the stuff about sushi and yakuza and urban legends. There are obviously a lot of layers here and I have a feeling even completely sober I would have missed some of them.

But like I said, I'll come back to this show and see if I can get into it more with a second viewing. What I gathered this time is that basically there are some kids living in a district of Tokyo and that brings them into contact with a cast of colorful characters including an American/Russian/sushi chef that looks about eight feet tall, a strong man who likes to throw heavy appliances, and a mysterious lady on a motorcycle whose head has been replaced by black smoke and a yellow cat-eared helmet.

Speaking of the mystery headless lady, she is one of the most popular cosplay costumes I've seen at Sakuracon in the six years I've been going. I think it might be the skintight black bodysuit and the cat-eared helmet that make it so popular. I could be wrong but I'm probably not.

Anyway, this show seems cool and I'm looking forward to giving it another shot. Just not tonight when all I can really think of at this point is sleep.

Ahhh, sleep. It's about time we spent some quality time together.

22/365: Guin Saga

So if you took Hercules and stuck a leopard head on him and gave him amnesia and hooked him up with a pair of twin heirs, you'd kind of basically have Guin Saga.

I'm sure there is more to the story than that, but I don't know how far into it I'll get cause while the anime is 26 episodes, the novel series it is based on is 130 novels PLUS 21 side-story novels.

Let me give you a second to really think about those numbers. 130 and 21. All written between 1979 and now. 151 books in 35 years. Over four books a year on average.

That is a mind-boggling amount of books to write in that period of time. Some authors take decades to write one book. The author of these was cranking them out like it was nothing.

And there is no way a 26 episode anime series will encompass all of the story that took 151 novels to tell. No way.

Even if they managed to come up with their own ending for the Guin Saga anime, it wouldn't have anything to do with the actual ending (if the series even has one, I was a little confused on that when reading up on it). Would it even fit with the story if it was just tacked on to complete the series?

That just doesn't work for me. I'm not fond of long-ass series with no real ending (once again looking at you Bleach) but I'm also not fond of ones with rushed or forced endings that don't seem to really fit with the show.

There is certainly stuff to like with this series. The animation is pretty slick and the fantasy world the characters live in sounds pretty complex and interesting.

But can I get emotionally invested in something that won't really end? I'll have to give it some more thought before I decide if I want to proceed.

21/365: Rurouni Kenshin

Watching Kenshin brings back so many memories for me. This was an anime that I shared with my friends way back in the day. It was one we'd pile around someone's computer to watch while talking and snacking and being young.

This show could probably be total crap and I'd still love it because it meant so much to me back in the day. The terribly annoying theme song, the never-ending fight scenes, the old school hand drawn animation.

It's all wonderful. I love it. Even now, 15 or so years later, I still love it. It still brings back so many great memories for me and yet stands up as a good anime as well. It's long and there is an over-abundance of fight scenes, and I don't get all of the historical references, but it it still a good anime.

Kenshin is basically about a warrior who was once the most feared killer in the country but gave all of that up and became a wanderer. He ends up wandering into a dojo one day and making friends with the lovely girl who lives there along with a rag-tag bunch of characters that teach him how to be a good person no matter what kind of past he is coming from.

I forgot how fun it is to watch Kenshin go from pretty boy with big purple eyes to serious warrior with thin purple eyes to scary killer with slitted golden eyes. You can tell the second the switch flips from cute Kenshin to badass Kenshin and you know when it happens the next scenes are gonna be exciting.

It amuses me. It amused me once upon a time and it amuses me now when I'm older and crankier and not as amused by things teenage me was amused by. I like that in a series.

I also like that the series takes a lot of time to be warm and humorous and fun. I saw the OAVs a lot later on and, while they are beautiful, they are also so freaking sad. I was just depressed as all get out when they ended.

I think I prefer a Kenshin that can make me laugh to one that makes me want to cry.

20/365: Fushigi Yugi

The end of this anime still makes me cry. Been almost twenty years since the first time I saw it and I still tear up like a weepy romantic girl during the last few seconds.

Oh me.

This was the first anime I saw all the way through from beginning to end (original 52 episode series). It took a long time as I had to buy the episodes on VHS tape and at the time they were expensive and hard to find.

I loved it anyway. I loved the perky, kind of dumb but full of heart, heroine. I loved her handsome money-grubbing love interest (and his sexy dubbed voice). I loved her bevy of adventuring cohorts - the mask-wearing monk, the rambunctious bandit, the beautiful cross-dressing concubine, the beautiful not-quite-but-almost-crossdressing emporer.

I loved that while a lot of the series was pretty funny in tone, there were moments that were dark, dark, DARK. Rape-y bits. Murder bits. Child sexual assault bits. Family death bits. It may have looked like just another magical girl Sailor Moon knock off, but there were moments where Fushigi Yugi took things a lot further than expected.

It was a great show. An epic show. A show not without its flaws ("MIAKA!" and "TAMAHOME!" are still imprinted on my eardrums to this day) but still worth watching for every one of its 52 episodes plus three multi-episode OAVs.

The story, basically, has to do with a girl who gets sucked into a magical book and has to gather warriors and call a god in order to grant her wishes. Of course she also has to fight Big Bads, deal with a BFF that has turned to the dark side, fall in love, and keep from being devoured by an ancient Chinese fantasy god.

Just your typical teen adventures and all that. 

I have dozens of fond memories of watching this anime with my own BFF (along with at least a dozen posters, wall scrolls, and one absolutely amazing original cell from the OAVs). And it still - to this day - makes me cry at the end. I kind of love that.

19/365: Attack on Titan

This show sure doesn't pull any punches. It starts with a giant skinless man crushing a wall protecting a human city from - what I could only assume would be more giant skinless people - and kinda built on the graphic violence from there.

It's the future but a fantasy-style future as opposed to a science fiction style future. People all live in a city surrounded by a mega wall because giant naked men are trying to eat them all. Honestly it sounds like a pretty crap future. Especially when the wall is breached by the giant skinless dude and slightly smaller skin-wearing dudes with creepy ass smiles who start eating people.

Seriously. They just pick up humans like French fries and pop them in their mouths while rampaging. Blood flies everywhere and those creepy ass smiles just get wider.

It's pretty brutal actually. The main characters are kids in the first episode and it's their mom getting scarfed like a piece of fried chicken. They were screaming and I was cringing and their mom was a Lunchable and it was not okay.

I can't see things ending terribly well in this show. Not with such a serious and intense start to it. But I got to hand it to the series creators for coming up with something unique and interesting to watch. The giant killer dudes really are super scary with the wide smiles and wonky eyes and mammoth naked bodies. And the fact they are just wandering around eating people certainly adds to their horror factor.

I'll be watching more of Attack on Titan, though I doubt I'll marathon it like some recent series I got into. I have a feeling nightmares would be soon to follow if I had to look at those creepy ass smiles too much in one day.

18/365: Hellsing Ultimate

Sometimes I forget which version of Hellsing anime I've seen most recently. Then I watch some of Hellsing Ultimate and I'm reminded immediately that it is a much better product - better animation, better adaptation of the manga, just better overall - and the original anime series just pales by comparison. Getting them confused with each other is just stupid and wrong.

Hellsing is dark and bloody and graphic and intense. People - a lot of people - die all over the place. The colors are vivid and in your face and used in some cases to obviously make you uncomfortable. There is some humor sprinkled here and there but really this is a serious show meant for mature audiences. There are no middle school kids with magic powers and constantly visible panties here.

I kind of love Hellsing. It's brutal and vicious at times, absolutely ridiculous at times, and the head vampire is wonderfully scary while saving the day. He isn't some emo vamp with too much glitter and time on his hands to fall for weepy teenage girls. He shoots to kill. He is made of shadows and demons and blood lust. He fights fellow vampires not just because he is bound to do so by the Hellsing organization, but because his fellow vampires are so much beneath him they don't deserve to continue on with their un-lives.

I wish there were more vampires like Alucard and less like the weak perpetual teenagers that pop up so often in television and movies and animation. Alucard creeps me the heck out and that is awesome.

17/365: Broken Blade

I started out laughing at this show. If you heard the opening narrative, you'd be laughing too. All this goofy business about quartz and 'magic' and people riding Segways that are called cars.

It was kind of silly.

Then there was some battling between giant clunky robot warriors and that was kind of cool. Of course the characters called them golems for some reason instead of mechs, but I was willing to go along with it cause giant robots are neat-o no matter what name they go by.

The show got better from there. The story still had some silly moments (the main character is known as an 'un-sorcerer' cause he can't use magic - seriously 'un-sorcerer'?) but there was some good action and drama mixed in with it. The story centers around two kingdoms at war with each other and the group of friends from opposing sides that are caught up in the middle of it.

Of course there is more to it than that, but that is why you watch a show instead of just reading about it.

Anyway, the episodes for Broken Blade are all about an hour long and are called films most places, but as they don't have actual endings for each part I ended up watching them just like a regular series. The animation is pretty good, though there are some very obvious CG bits that threw me off. And I wasn't impressed with all of the dubbed voices (the main character especially didn't seem to have a voice that I could take seriously).

But overall, though I started out giggling at the silly bits, I ended up liking Broken Blade quite a bit. Kind of fun when it works out that way.

16/365: Magic Knight Rayearth

It has been a long LONG time since I last tried watching this series. Like maybe a decade or so.

I remembered the theme song being way more annoying, and the dubbing being less so.

I remembered the artwork being more top quality, and the costume changes less silly.

I remembered thinking the story was more interesting, and the magical-girl aspects being less campy.

I'm not sure if I totally remembered this series wrong, or my outlook on anime has just completely changed in the last ten years.

Gotta admit it is just as CLAMP looking as it ever was though. The eyes are HUGE and pointy and funny colors. The faces are all sharp chins and tiny mouths and wide cheeks. The outfits have a lot of tall boots and short skirts and long capes and funny head gear.

This just isn't what I'm into anymore. Not that I was into this enough to watch the series (or the sequel series) all the way through the last time. Even with the magical mechas introduced later on, it just didn't do it for me. I'm a one magical-girl anime loving type of gal I guess, and Sailor Moon cemented that place in my heart a long time ago. 

By the way though, the original manga style artwork for this series is GORGEOUS. I'm all over that shit.

15/365: New Dominion Tank Police

If the style of the characters and the city around them isn't obvious enough, all it takes is one look at the spider-like tank unit to know this anime was created by the same artist that created Ghost in the Shell.

It's old and hand drawn and the line work is a little thin and sloppy, but New Dominion Tank Police is an excellent example of a series created for an adult audience who care more about story and artwork than fan service and sword fights.

Sure things get blown up a lot (they are 'tank' police after all) and sure there are a few sexy female characters dressed in scandalous outfits (with cat features no less) but this show is about as far from a lot of the current stuff available as you can get.

I love Ghost in the Shell. LOVE IT. But I can admit that the original animated feature and more recent animated series don't look much like the manga they were based on. Masamune Shirow (the artist/creator behind Ghost in the Shell and New Dominion Tank Police) has a very specific looking way of drawing faces, weapons, and even city structures. This series looks a lot like his original work, from the overcrowded and technologically advanced cityscapes to the fluffy hair and pointy little noses of the characters.

They just don't make anime like this anymore. Everything now is so polished and pretty. The male characters are always gorgeous, the female characters are always perky and lovely, and the world around them almost shines. There isn't a whole lot of shiny in New Dominion Tank Police. It is a dirty world filled with ugly people behaving in a terrible fashion, and it is proud of that.

And I love it. They just don't make anime like this anymore, which is really a shame. If it wasn't for these older shows we probably wouldn't have the newer shows to watch now.  They could probably learn a thing or two from their predecessors.

14/365: Knight Hunters Eternity

This show is so campy.

A long time ago I bought the first Knight Hunters series when it went on sale at an online anime store. I just really wanted anime - any anime - and it was an entire series for cheap.

I was not impressed. I don't even remember if I finished it or not. The characters weren't horrible but their outfits were silly and a lot of the dubbed dialogue was silly and several of the story lines were silly. I just really couldn't get into it.

I thought maybe after all this time, and two previous series, I might finally be able to get into Knight Hunters.

Nope. Not happening.

I'm not sure exactly why either. I suppose it could be the overly dramatic premise of hunting bad guys at a rather creepy high school. Or it could be the way none of the voices in the dub match the look of the characters they are matched with. Or maybe it's the ridiculous distorted voice that gives the main characters their mission orders that throws me off (it is really silly folks).

I just don't know. I'm watching and I'm trying to get into the story and I keep losing interest or giggling when it strikes me as ridiculous. Looks like me and Knight Hunters are just never going to be friends.

Oh well.

In case you care, the story centers around a group of detective/assassins/something or other who infiltrate a creepy ass high school where students keep offing themselves and teenagers have the authority over most of the adults. Nefarious things are obviously afoot here and hopefully they figure it all out before the body count gets too terribly high.

I'm sure there is more to it, but I'm not watching past the first episode. At least not today. Maybe I'll try again in the future and see what happens.

Perhaps third time is the charm on this one? We'll see.

13/365: Pretear

This show has some very silly costume changes. It's like Sailor Moon only the heroine gets doll-style naked with some dudes and then merges with them (it's a lot less dirty than it sounds) when she does her magical power ups.

I wanted to like this series but between annoying voices (both original and dubbed for once), overly silly and dramatic acting (is that even the right word for animation), and kind of a ridiculous story, it wasn't really happening.

Maybe I've seen too many anime now where a boy and girl meet, seem to hate each other at first, and end up falling in love anyway. Or maybe I'm just not as enamored of magical girl stories as I used to be. I don't mind when characters have magic and fight demons and stuff. I just think the power ups and costumes have gotten kind of stale (of course I'll still watch the Sailor Moon reboot when it comes out, but that has a whole nostalgia thing going for it so there is an excuse).

Anyhoo, this story basically centers around a teen girl with family issues who finds out she is a super powered heroine who can merge with dudes who turn into weapons and swanky outfits in order to fight demons and stuff. She falls in love with one of them because why not, and fighting and adventure type stuff happens.

I only watched one episode and read up on the rest of the series. I just wasn't feeling it with this one. Oh well. They can't all be winners I guess.

12/365: Kamisama Kiss

The way characters kiss in anime always makes me giggle. It looks like two dolls slotting together. I wonder if that is why so many anime leave it out. It will be implied that the characters were making out, but not usually shown.

Anyway, so I picked this pretty randomly from the selection on Huluplus. I liked the idea of a fox yokai with white hair and ears cause it reminded me of Inuyasha. And while there is the whole human girl with special powers falls for animal demon thing going on here, Kamisama Kiss isn't so much like Inuyasha that I couldn't appreciate it for itself.

The story basically centers around a girl who loses her home and ends up becoming a Land God at a local shrine instead. She starts gathering familiars and other demon allies around herself from pretty much the get-go, as she has a sweet nature and giving heart and a tendency to get herself into situations where someone ends up needing saving.

The romance aspect of the show is mentioned in pretty much the first few minutes of the series so I knew it was coming, but it still seemed to take a while. I find that kind of annoying, but as this series was only 13 episodes long it wasn't too annoying. Just, you know, kind of annoying.

The manga for this series has been running for almost ten years so I'm actually kind of glad they made the series so short. There's nothing like watching a show that is trying to keep up with an ongoing manga and having a hard time doing so (I'm looking at you again Bleach).

11/365: Kimi no Todoke

Still feeling the warm fuzzies from Say "I Love You" (which I marathoned in one night and now am a sad panda at being finished with) I decided to find another anime similar to that one to watch today. Kimi no Todoke popped up eventually in my search and sure sounded similar to the other show - shy, misunderstood girl gets a chance at friendship and more from the most popular boy in school. But while this show certainly had its good points, I didn't find myself liking it quite as much as I did the other.

Was it because the main character was more awkward and sweet and eager to please than in Say "I Love You?" Was it because she and her handsome love interest take nearly two seasons to figure out that their feelings for each other are mutual and they want to be together (which is annoying)? Was it because I'd seen the other series first and already had that on the brain when I started this one so it could never live up to it?

The world may never know (because I'm not going to spend too much time on trying to figure it all out).

It just is what it is. Kimi no Todoke is a cute show with cute high school characters wandering through life trying to figure it all out. The main character has some very funny moments being unknowingly very creepy, and the story ultimately has a happy ending. There are still warm fuzzies to be had from it, just not to the extent I was hoping.

Oh well. I wish sometimes I could love all anime as much as I loved Kaze no Stigma and Say "I Love You." But then I'd be marathoning series all the time and never sleep, and the eventual insanity that would cause would be a buzzkill.

10/365: Say "I Love You"

I have a tendency to watch a lot of the same kind of anime. Science fiction, fantasy, big robots, lots of swords, bloody fights, magic users. You get the idea.

So tonight I thought I'd try something a little different. While searching online for an anime I went to a completely different genre than normal and picked something low on fantasy and high on everyday emotional life.

I have to say I'm surprised at how much I ended up liking Say "I Love You." The artwork is lovely, the character designs are lovely, the opening song is soft and lovely, and the story is lovely. It's basically just about two high school kids who meet and fall in love and try to figure out what that means in the grand scheme of things.

It isn't flashy. It isn't graphically violent or disturbingly horrifying. There aren't any explosions or battles or terrorist attacks. The two main romantic leads don't even spend half the movie screaming each others' names at the top of their lungs.

They just meet, and talk, and date, and misunderstand each other, and go to karaoke, and deal with their friends and family.  It's just every day stuff that happens in a lot of people's every day lives (well, if they were super attractive anime people at any rate).

It's cute, and awkward, and funny, and sad, and lots of other emotion type things.

And I really really liked it. I'm just as surprised by that as anyone. I may have to give this 'trying new things' a shot again sometime soon.

9/365: Blood-C

I get a kick out of CLAMP stuff. All those big eyes and pointy faces and lanky bodies. And how characters find some way, any way, to move between series and appear in each others' worlds. It amuses me.

But I didn't realize that Blood-C, the newest incarnation of the universe started with Blood: The Last Vampire, was a CLAMP product until I went looking for more information about it after I started watching. I guess it just doesn't look as much like CLAMP to me as oldies such as Magic Knight Rayearth and X:1999 did.

Really I picked this to watch because I loved Blood: The Last Vampire and liked Blood+ okay so was curious to see what direction the story was going in now. And it isn't bad. It's different but kind of the same (main character is still named Saya, she still has a kickass sword, and she still fights monsters in her spare time) and when it gets bloody it gets really bloody and when it gets cute it gets kind of annoying.

Seriously, Saya has a cute little voice and she apologizes all the time and makes big eyes at everyone and doesn't see the romance blooming right in front of her pointy little nose. Kind of annoying.

But as the story progresses and the Big Bads come out to play and the story turns in on itself in kind of a sad, frustrating, nasty way, she stops being so annoying. I just ended up feeling really sorry for her. I kind of sussed out at least one of the Big Bads before his reveal and I started feeling sorry for Saya right at that moment. It was obvious things were not going to end well.

Poor girl. Poor girl with a wicked cool sword and ultra-goth school uniform (looks like something you could buy at Hot Topic actually, all red and black and sporting chains) who kicks demon ass.

The series for Blood-C ends on a cliffhanger, because anime creators want us to be miserable, but apparently a movie also exists that ties up the loose ends. I'm having a little trouble finding it, but I'd like to see it at some point if I can ever hunt it down. Could be cool.

8/365: Inuyasha-The Final Act

Let me explain what I did here.

I've watched a lot of Inuyasha before now. A LOT.

I was a faithful viewer when the series started up on Cartoon Network and tuned in every night it was on to see the continuing adventures of a reincarnated priestess and her half-demon boyfriend.

Originally I started watching because it was created by the same person who created Ranma 1/2, which I loved.

Later I stayed because I really liked the story.

I stayed. And stayed. And stayed.

And then by about episode ... 50 or something, I got kind of worn out. It started to seem like the same old fights were happening over and over again and nothing was really getting accomplished.

I don't mind long series, but I kinda want them to have an end at some point (seriously Bleach, we need to talk).

So I moved away from Inuyasha and on to other things and didn't think much on it. I wondered sometimes if it had ever ended, or been left open like many long series seem to be.

And I wondered if the main characters had ever finally gotten their shit together, realized they were in love, and hooked up.

Call me a romantic at heart, but that was what it boiled down to for me. I can only take so many shows with clueless leads refusing to see the happy-ever-after right in front of their face.

Then tonight I was searching through Huluplus for an anime to watch and lo-and-behold Inuyasha-The Final Act popped up. The summary said it was the final fight in the story and so I was curious again.

Did that mean this long ass series actually had something of a conclusion? Did they manage to kill the bad guy finally?

And more importantly: did the main characters finally hook up?

Yep, I was in it just to see if they finally got over themselves and realized they were meant to be. So I watched just the very last episode of the last story of this anime.

I'm an adult. I do what I want.

I have to say I was very pleased with the ending. I even got a bit emotional (I can't help it sometimes, I'm a big girl like that). There was lots of exposition but hey, it's anime, it wouldn't really be the same without it.

I'm even feeling inspired now to watch some more Inuyasha.

But not the whole series. My attention span just doesn't have it in it for that kind of commitment anymore.

7/365: Ranma 1/2

Ranma will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first manga I ever read. I wore that book out until the binding came unglued and the pages fell out.

I loved it. It was hilariously funny and a little big naughty and full of ridiculous characters in even more ridiculous situations.

It was great fun to read.

And it was actually a few years after reading that first manga volume that I found out it was an anime series as well. I spent forever hunting down a VHS with the first two episodes on it. The print was fuzzy, the subtitles were off, and the sound sucked, but I loved that too.

I meant to revisit it over the years as I moved on to newer shows, but somehow never got back to watching more of it. Seeing it now I'm reminded of why I loved the Ranma concept so much. It is also made obvious just how far anime has come from the days when Ranma was first released (1989 or therabouts).

While the art between the book and the show isn't as different as, say, that found between the Sailor Moon manga and anime series (beautiful manga art style, not quite as beautiful animation art style), there are still some very noticeable differences. The character heads are a little too large, a little too cartoonish, and a little too prone to changing between scenes. Overall everything is a bit more cartoonish than what was found in the manga, but it isn't horrible to look at and after a while I stopped noticing.

The story, in case you were wondering (and why wouldn't you be?) revolves around a 16 year old boy named Ranma who fell into a cursed spring while doing martial arts training and now turns into a girl every time he's splashed with cold water. His father has been similarly cursed to turn into a panda. While the boy wants nothing more to return to the scene of the crime to get his curse reversed, he instead has to deal with a sudden engagement to a girl who hates boys, constant duel requests from a boy who gets lost standing in place, and a whole slew of enemies and admirers constantly out to get him (many of whom are also cursed to turn into different things when they get wet).

As the series progresses it gets more and more ridiculous - with anything-goes gymnastics tournaments, pervy martial arts masters who steal underpants, and romantic rivals that refuse to take "no" as an answer - just a few of the things that pop up.

Even after all of these years (at least 15 I'm thinking) I still love Ranma. It is nice to see that hasn't changed even with all of the manga and anime that has come after I was introduced to it.

6/365: Qwaser of Stigmata

I am not really sure what I just watched.

There were boobs and dead chicks and more boobs and fan service and some kind of bizarre confusing storyline and more boobs and a super hero who got power from boobs or something.

I'm fairly certain the convoluted plot hinted at in the first episode is just a VERY thinly veiled excuse to show boobs.

Seriously, there are a lot of boobs in this series. Naked boobs, bouncy boobs, squishy boobs, you name it they're here somewhere.

I think I picked this because it looked kind of dark and the name reminded me of Kaze no Stigma (yep, I'm still lamenting the end of that show) but this was nothing like what I expected. It opened with boobs and rolled right on from there.

Sure it has it's dark moments. The first episode does feature a serial killer slicing up teenage girls. But that is kind of overshadowed by the boobs. And the panties. And the fact that the main super hero sucks on boobs to get powered up.

Seriously folks, this is a thing in this show. A nun (I think it was a nun of some type?) rips off her top and offers this kid her chest and he latches on in the middle of a fight with a psycho killer like that is totally normal.

I guess in the world of anime that might be normal.

But maybe not so much for me. I'm not a prude but I kind of like my anime to have a good plot that catches my attention and holds it, no matter what naked business is going on around it. This didn't really do it for me. I probably won't be catching the rest of it anytime soon.

I'll probably have nightmares featuring giant, bouncy, animated boobs for a while though.

5/365: Hetalia World Series

I miss Kaze no Stigma. I spent the last ... day or so watching it and now it's over and I'm feeling rather empty and sad without it.

I really, REALLY liked that show.

And it looks like there is only two manga and some light novels to get me by now.

That isn't enough.

But I'm trying to move on to new things, so today I'm watching Hetalia World Series. It's short and funny and very cartoonish and I am in no way comparing it to Kaze no Stigma and getting mad cause it isn't the same.

I like that.

I also like to laugh, and Hetalia is always good for a laugh. Whether it is from Prussia commenting on his diaries or America and Canada playing a brutal game of catch or Germany being harassed by just about anyone, it is all good for some laughs.

I kind of wish I knew more world history (or even geography) so I understood more of the jokes. But oh well. I still laugh. Especially at the Japan/Greece friendship. It's hilarious. Trust me.

When I first saw Hetalia Axis Powers I had no idea what I was getting into. I just knew the series was popular enough to inspire dozens of cosplayers at Sakuracon. It didn't take me long to get into the swing of it though. This show is based around the idea that all of the countries of the world are human beings and they interact and compete and form friendships and do silly things.

Good times. Even the episodes that are serious instead of funny are very well done. And in little five minute episodes you never really have time to get bored. Also good stuff.

At least good enough to get me past this depression I'm feeling over the lack of more Kaze no Stigma to watch.

4/365: Kaze no Stigma

This has to be one of my fave anime of the past five years or so.

I can't seem to stop watching episodes even though I really only intended to play one today. And at first I thought this might be just another one of those brightly colored, computer animated shows that kind of get on my nerves.

But even though it IS brightly colored and computer animated, it is also hilarious and fun to watch and has a pretty well constructed story.

I get a big kick out of the main character. He's a smartass and kind of a dick and takes crap from nobody yet he still winds up doing the right thing over and over again. Of course he has the love hate thing going on with the main female lead, and while she's high-strung and screams a lot and seems to lose fights just so the animators can tear off her clothes, I find her less annoying than usual. Cause deep down she's not so bad. She questions her abilities and her strengths but she also does what's right when it comes down to it.

It's also fun to see a world where magic is not only out in the open but fully accepted as part of society. No super secret magical heroes popping up and doing silly costume changes here! (Though honestly I love the silly costume changes in Sailor Moon and wouldn't have that show any other way.)

There are serious moments here, and lots of violent fights and explosions, and then some very silly moments as well. It's all blended together so that one moment you're laughing and the next you're wondering if the characters will make it through the next big fight (though I'm betting they always do in this particular series).

The story is basically about a wind magic user who comes back to Japan after four years away after his family of fire magic users banished him for being weak and a failure. He's certainly not a failure now when he continually kicks everyone's butts in magical battles. He argues a bunch with his family, he flirts and frustrates his female counterpart, and he fights a successively stronger bunch of monsters. I'm sure he'll also learn some important things along the way, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

The night is young though, I'm sure I'll get there sometime soon.

3/365: RahXephon

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A teenage boy in the possible near future is hanging out in a city that gets attacked by robot monster things. He teams up with a hot kickass older chick and winds up being the only one that can pilot the robot that can save the world.

Sound familiar? If you guessed I was watching Neon Genesis Evangelion, you'd actually be wrong.

Honestly I would've guessed the same thing. At least in the beginning this show is very similar to Evangelion. I kept wanting to call the main character Shinji Ikari and expected him to start whining at any moment.

Not that I've got anything against Shinji really. But if you've seen Evangelion at all I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Once upon a time when I was a decade or thereabouts younger, G4 showed anime on the weekends and RahXephon was the first show I really got into. Unfortunately at the time I missed the very first episode as well as the last three or four, so I never found out how the story ended. They re-aired it a while later (after the excellent Cromartie High School) and again I missed the end.

It was kind of annoying.

I remember liking the series though, even with all the similarities to Evangelion (and there really are a lot of them, I'm not gonna list them all but yeah).

It's really pretty to look at, and they obviously tried to go a different route with their mechs than other series and movies have. The music elements to the show are also pretty cool.

There is a lot to like here really. I had no problem hitting play on next episode after next episode. So it definitely is worth a try.

If you can get past the whole Evangelion thing at any rate.

2/365: Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

I don't like the theme song.

I'm not going to base my entire opinion of this series on that, but I thought I'd throw it out there just to get it said.

It sounds to me like a messed up version of some other series theme song (I'm having trouble remembering which one and I'm watching through YouTube videos trying to figure it out which is just making it harder for me. Ugh). Maybe they're done by the same people and that's why, or maybe it is just the way my brain is working.

But it's making me not like it.

Oh well. Moving on.

So this is more of that good ol' 90s anime at work. Flickering lights, muted colors, 2D movement, pointy faces. But I like that style so it doesn't bother me at all. That's what I was raised on pretty much (well 80s into 90s anime at any rate) so it actually looks more normal to me than this super flashy computer done stuff nowadays.

Like a lot of anime, this series has a severe over-abundance of exposition going on most of the time. I pretty much got the gist of the story within the first half of the first episode as every character was kind enough to talk on and on and on. I wonder sometimes if that is why people who are just trying to get into anime get annoyed and stop watching it. Usually that tones down after the first few episodes, but it can take a while to get used to in the beginning.

So the story seems to revolve around this group of kickass ladies in the future who fight rogue robots (called boomers cause why not?) as well as sometimes each other. They wear very swanky armor that makes them look very sexy (of course) and spend a lot of time trying to hide their identities from the actual authorities while keeping normal jobs and kind of dating.

This isn't exactly the first future-themed anime I've watched, or the first with kickass women in sexy armor that I've seen. I like sci-fi anime and I enjoy robots, so yay for that and all. But maybe I've seen too much sci-fi anime with robots and kickass armor, cause I couldn't help comparing Bubblegum Crisis to other series I've seen. Not that Dominion Tank Police or Ghost in the Shell or Appleseed are exactly the same, but the comparisons are still there.

1/365: Vampire Princess Miyu

I'm fairly certain I've seen part of this series before. I know I've seen all of the OAV episodes. It looks very familiar and I remembered the Big Bad of the first ep. I'm cool with seeing it again though.

Miyu is one of those great older series (late 90s or so) that is dark and violent with some nice graphic bloodshed and a hint or two of nudity. It has a dark concept and doesn't shy away from that fact with glossy animation styles or cutesy characters (though there is a somewhat disturbing bunny creature with one very creepy eye thing going on).

It also has that old hand-drawn feel which I kind of miss. Sure the movements are slow or choppy or obviously two-dimensional, but the story still manages to be engrossing and strange and fun to watch.

The story basically revolves around a half human/half vampire 'guardian' who travels the world keeping demon-types (called shinma in this series) from doing too many horrible things. She isn't exactly a warrior of light and love, however. She has a tendency to let shinma kill people off before she stops them, and she isn't above encouraging douche-y teenagers to throw themselves off buildings if they piss her off. Fun to see a little 'anti' in the series' heroine from time to time.

Though I know I saw this series first and it should be the other way around, I find it reminds me quite a bit of Hell Girl. Similar concepts: jilted/angry/horrible people seek revenge on those that have done them wrong and call on demonic forces to help them out (or something to that effect) until a dark-haired ultra-powerful teenage girl comes along and cleans up the mess - for a price.

Perhaps as the series goes on they won't seem to similar, but I don't really mind at this point as I liked Hell Girl and I like Miyu so it all works for me.