Two >> High School of the Dead

(watched 4/2/13)

Leave it to anime to find a way to stick gratuitous fan service in a show about zombies.

I don't know why I'm surprised. At this point I'm ready to expect fan service to appear in historical dramas and children's programming. Fan service is just one of those things - like epic nosebleeds or giant sweat drops - that peppers the landscape of anime whether you want it to or not.

Oh well. Moving on.

I saw several clips from High School of the Dead during Sakuracon this year. The best was a parody AMV of the song "Call Me Maybe." I'd try to explain it but I don't think I'd do it justice. Just know it was pretty dang funny and a well made fan video over all.

The show itself isn't nearly as funny, but then it isn't supposed to be. This is a show about zombies, after all, and it is serious business. There is lots of screaming and running and yelling and dramatic pauses for deep emotional reflection.

Once again this is anime after all, and you can't have anime without long, dramatic, pregnant pauses where characters reflect on their emotional baggage with other characters or themselves. Even if the zombie apocalypse is happening.

And the zombie apocalypse is happening here. They don't play around in High School of the Dead. People start dying early on and it is graphic and violent and nasty. Flesh tears, bone cracks, and blood spurts all over the place.

Of course then the real drama starts happening, because character development is the backbone of a good zombie story. How do the survivors react to what they are seeing, what they are doing? How do they treat each other and themselves? How do they go on when their whole world has changed?

I'm only a couple of episodes in but so far I'm intrigued. Fan service isn't exactly my thing but good storytelling sure is, and so far as characters are introduced and storylines are laid out, I'm interested to see what happens next. I see much pain, anger, fear, romance, and panties in the future.

One >> Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt

(watched 4/1/13)

This has to be the most adorable, filthy thing I've ever watched.

Seriously.

Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt is drawn in a style reminiscent of The Powerpuff Girls or Dexter's Laboratory. But the subject matter ...

The subject matter is so far from those cartoons it isn't even in the same stratosphere.

I have never heard the "f" word used so many times in an animated show before. Especially not coming from adorable little chibi mouths.

Basically Panty and Stocking is about two fallen angels who fight ghosts, eat sweets, mouth off, and have lots and lots and LOTS of sex.

Lots and lots of sex.

This show is ridiculously adult, though you never actually see any of the sexy shenanigans going on (it isn't hentai after all). But the language, the subject matter ...

Even the power ups for the angels are just barely this side of too inappropriate for television. They even include stripper poles.

Stripper poles!

The angels fight poop monsters and demon possessed cars and high school bitch queens and their own baser impulses, and they do it with smiles on their faces (basically) and magical weapons (made from their underpants and stockings no less) and filthy running commentary.

Filthy. Believe me.

Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt is delightfully over the top and hilariously fun to watch. I can understand now why it is such a popular cosplay option when I go to conventions. I'll admit I've even been toying around with the idea of cosplaying one of them next Sakuracon ...

Let's Try This (Yet) Again...

Having just gotten back from Sakuracon (the Pacific Northwest's BIGGEST anime convention), I am once again filled with the desire to watch more anime. I think at some point along the way I had lost most of my interest in it. I'm not sure why, it just seemed to happen. But after spending three days immersed in anime fandom and culture, I'm feeling a renewed sense of interest in all things animated.

Luckily for me, I have a subscription to HuluPlus and they have tons of anime titles. I'm actually surprised at how much anime they have, when services like Netflix have so little choice for streaming.

So I'm going to try this (yet) again. One new anime (or animated whatever - movie/show/etc) every day for 365 days. Let's see how far I can get this time, shall we?

Whatever....

Okay so I'm a giant loser who can't even keep up with my own dang challenge for myself.

I'm about over it.

From now on I'll watch as much anime as I can manage (but probably not something new everyday) and I'll write up how I feel about it when I watch it.

Maybe if I get in the regular habit of it I can make a daily thing out of it.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

Anyways, onwards and upwards I guess!

#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.