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.