#30: Saint Seiya Omega

I never watched Saint Seiya when I was younger and it was on American television under the name Knights of the Zodiac.

I think I can vaguely remember seeing snippets of it a time or too, but I might be confusing it with Macross or Robotech or even Voltron.

My first memory of Saint Seiya is seeing this amazing tattoo my little sister got based on some of the manga artwork. After pushing down the insane amounts of tattoo related jealousy I had (which is stupid really because my Ghost in the Shell tattoo is way more awesome) I looked up the anime series itself.

The original series is old with synthesized 80's music, flashy effects, terrible costume colors, and rather sub-par dubbing.

I love it.

And I've always kind of wished that someone would update the series with some flash new school animation.

Apparently the anime gods have been listening to this fangirl's wishes, cause Saint Seiya Omega is exactly that. A new look at an old series, full of modern effects and colors and character designs.

And believe me, this show is flashy. If you are one of those that get convulsions from watching crazy flashy anime you might want to skip this show. The battles are kind of just flashy chaos.

I thinks this series might also pick up from where the last one left off. Or something. Cause it certainly doesn't seem to start at the very beginning where the original Saint Seiya did. And I have never seen all of the original story as it wasn't available in the US and I don't actually know if it ever made it all the way from manga to anime.

But it is all good. The basic premise is the same. There are these warriors known as Saints who explode their internal energy - or "cosmos" - to battle each other and bad guys. Each symbol of the zodiac has a Saint (hence why it was called Knights of the Zodiac in the US) and there are several levels of power as well as several awesome costume changes.

There is also lots of fighting. Lots and lots of it. It is just that kind of show.

And there's other stuff too, of course, but if you haven't seen any of the series it won't make a whole lot of sense.

Point is I liked this new addition to the Saint Seiya series. So far it looks good, sounds good, and is fun to watch. I'm curious to see what happens next in the story. 

Yep yep, starting this challenge over yet again!

It has been an epically long time (at least if you count time in fly lifetimes) since I watched anime, and this makes me a very sad panda.

But once again I am determined to make the most of this challenge. Of course I meant to restart yesterday since it was the first day of the month. But I didn't get around to it because I am me and that tends to happen.

I'm okay with this trait in myself. At least at this moment.

Because I am still going to make the most of this challenge. I'm just starting today instead of yesterday.

So here I go. An anime a day every day for a year.

I'm pretty excited to see what is out there. Aren't you?

#29: Ouran High School Host Club

This show makes me happy.

It is bright and funny and complex and well drawn. The animation style reminds me a bit of Revolutionary Girl Utena, one of my fave anime series. The voices are actually well chosen and dubbed in English, though of course the Japanese is even better.

I could sit and watch this show all day. Even the more dramatic episodes are highly enjoyable.

They make me happy.

There are elements that are too sweet. There are elements that are too girly. There are elements that are too loud and silly.

But they mesh together well, so that the whole is wonderfully, surprisingly, amazingly better than the individual elements.

This is one of the only anime that I prefer above the manga it is based off of. I got kinda bored reading the manga, but I have never gotten bored watching the show. Weird but true.

The story is, at its most basic level, about a scholarship student who goes to an ultra-rich school and ends up indebted to the Host Club after breaking an expensive vase. Though she is a girl and has a girl's name, they mistake her for a boy and hijinks, of course, ensue. It sounds kinda silly, and it is, but it is a good kind of silly.

Trust me. I never lie about anime.

The fact is that this show surpasses its silly premise and manages to have a rich storyline and multi-faceted characters. The mischievous and (slightly) pervy twins - Kaoru and Hikaru - especially are interesting to watch. It is a near perfect example of why I love anime so much. It doesn't pretend that just because it is animated it should be any less dramatic or involved or well written.

And all critical acclaim aside, the most important thing about it (to me anyway) is that it makes me happy. I can't think of praise greater than that.

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.