You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2007.
The fact that my first few posts have already left the main page may be evidence that I talk too much XD. I get the feeling I repeat myself sometimes, so I’m gunna get down to brass tax today.
As usual, I’m a little late with this series, but I can’t help but love it. It’s uber-unique; plus the story is not boring. It takes the roll of a serious sci-fi anime like Gundam or the like, and while it features less battles, I care about it a lot more. I’ve never been able to get into a Gundam series simply because they take themselves so seriously. While I do like serious anime, if I don’t like the characters then it ruins the atmosphere.
I love the cast of Simoun. There are enough characters that I can hate half and love half, and my favorites are all super-kelw. Aeru-chan is prolly my favorite thus far, but the silver haired girl and the younger one with the blue hair are cool too. Most of the originals are bastards, and I think that was done on purpose though the one girl with the dark purple hair makes up for it. I’ve never been much for the strong silent types, but I admire her responsible nature.
And of course, lets not forget the tons of girl on girl action! I wish they wouldn’t talk about one becoming a man all the time… why not be lovers and both stay women? >_< It makes for better fanfiction afterward!!! lol. Anywho, I’ll surely have a full review once I finish watching it. Hopefully before the subs disappear!
EDIT: Also, I changed the header to better fit my style :p
You never really realise how new you are to anime until you face a situation like this. You’re watching the new episodes of several series each week, but you also keep reading about all these other series that are apparently really cool, and then you’re facing down two 26-episode series that you need to watch, and also trying to figure out if they take precedence over the new episodes that you also need to watch, and how you can base all this around going to school and forum time. Then you remember that you forgot to finish Mushishi and all hell breaks loose XD
Luckily there’s only 2 weeks left of school. I had been wondering what I was going to do this summer and now it has become clear - I’m going to spend the entire time watching countless anime. Hopefully my brain doesn’t explode, lol. Anyway, I just got ep. 9 of hayate no Gotoku out of the way, and now there’s and episode 8 of LS and I still gotta catch up on denno coil 2 >_<
Also, a note about the blog itself. i’d just like to disclaim that none of the images I use are mine - I just pul them from photobucket. Evidently even the Fukoi image belongs to Wildarmsheero (kick ass, BTW!)
Episode 9 - Hayate no Gotoku
Anywho, the 9th episode was pretty cool. It lacked much of the over-the-top goodness of others. There was almost no 4th-wall-breaking or WTF?! moments. We see a little character development, though with the one pink-haired girl I think they forgot what she had been like before >_< She wasn’t quite so OMG Tsundere earlier. I think my main problem is that with other episodes they crammed tons of action into 22 minutes but with this one it was just one plot. Also SEVERE lack of Nagi, my favorite character!
Talk about having too much free time, lol. I decided to use my 3rd day of weekend on watching Futakoi Alternative (UFOTable, the people who did Manabi Straight). One could say I’m pretty far behind, but hey I’m not exactly an experienced otaku >_< I also caught Gurren 9 so i’ll edit this later today with the review of that, but I’m rather pressed for time at this moment, so I’ll just put my review of Futakoi below. Oh yeah, and I erased the Sola page for the reason that I couldn’t care enough to continue watching. If I block-watch the rest, I’ll talk about it in a post, but otherwise I may just ignore it eternally.
Overall, I can safely say I really liked this show, despite the issues I thought it had - issues that I felt to have been resolved by the end. This is truly a pure love story, and I respect it for that, with a perfect ending for a romantic such as myself, lol.
There were some slow parts, but they were only a problem in the earlier episodes. I think the problem was that they tried to use situations where we would feel a certain way about the chracters, but they hadn’t yet introduced them in a wy that we would care enough yet. Of the first 6 episodes, while I really loved episode one and four, there were only certain parts of other episodes I liked.
From 7 on, though, it really makes up for it as a great series. There are still some issues, but when you watch the whole series, the way the whole was projected seems to work out. The show can be really sad or really happy, super-desolate or hyper-energetic, and it does both sides of the field well.
I’m glad I watched this right after something like NHK, too. This show isn’t meant to be deep, it doesn’t make you think hard afterward. It’s just a simple, lighthearted, fun, and well-made romantic action comedy (and I mean comedy in the drama sense.) It leaves only one question for the audience….
HAPPY DESU NEE?!?!?!
The last 3 episodes were what really clenched it for me, though. They are positively EPIC. I haven’t seen an ending quite so crazy in a long time. That’s another thing that makes this show interesting - in a lot of episodes it seems like a pure romance and you completely forget about all the 12-year olds with machine guns and giant fire-shooting squids, but when they reappear, it feels almost natural.
i don’t want to spoil the ending, but i will say that it is positvely awesome and pulls the story together exactly the way I wanted to see.
Okay, okay, I messed up. i was supposed to add my impressions of LS 7, and DTB 7 before, and now the subs are only days away from there being an 8 for each. I think it’s time I did some justice. Not to mention G-L is past ep. 9 now, so that must be spoken of as well.
Darker Than Black episode 7
Episode 7 was both awesome and absolutely hilarious! Firstly, the detective and his assistant make a great team, and funny together.The pink-heaired cosplay-obsessed loli otaku girl was awesome. Not just for those reasons (and not just cuz of the sexy kitty outfit)… okay, mostly for those reasons XDThe entire scene where the detective went into the house I couldn’t stop laughing. From the creepy maid to the part where she was cleaning his ears (WTF?!?!) though the best had to be when he said ‘I pissed myself a little there’ XDZOMG at the cat guy’s powers revealed! But then why do we never see him as any other animal?
Lucky Star 7
Episode 7 may have been my favorite thus far. Far as I’m concerned, the show keeps getting better and better.
Reason i liked it more than 6 is cuz 6 was trying to be funny throuhg being extreme, while 7 was just plain funny. Also, this was the least jumpy of the episodes. It focused on 3 name things - cell phones, Konata-chan talking fancy, and the dentist incident with Miyuki-chan.
I loved every joke in this one, but there were some definite highlights.
- Any time Konata-chan talked fancy - just loved it!
- Konata’s email being iluvgirlswithglasses. That was the defining moment in Konata-chans character for me, and as far as I’m conerned, it proves everything XD
- When Tsukasa was trying to figure out her phone number. Tsukasa is starting to fight Konata fo place as my favorite, simply because she looks soooo adorable when she concentrates on something or gets lost in her own head.
- Konata’s dad trying to call her XD
Although Lucky Channel was by far the funniest thing this show has done yet. The very second it started and I saw Shiraishai in oiogtails and Akira looking away, I burst into laughter and couldn’t stop the whole duration. I almost cried laughing.
Also, is it just me, or has the animation climbed a whole new level? The girls always looked fluid, but this episode had them moving constantly and watchin them was… mesmerizing… also, i think I need to read Sgt. Frog.
And so, completely without warning, a Hayate no Gotoku page goes up! HAHAHA! Yes, i’m now watching this one as well, and also I’m hoping the ep 9 subs of Gurren-Lagann show up today. Nut more importantly, I just decided, upon completion of watching it, that Welcome to the NHK is my new second favorite anime taking over Haruhi’s place. Why is below.
[WARNING! EXTREME SPOILERS FOR WELCOME TO THE NHK!]
I just finished watching this last night (watched from like 12 to 24 in a marathon, lol) and this is probably now my third favorite anime of all time, pushing Kanon out of the way. In fact it might even surpass Haruhi for the number 2 spot. This anime really toyed with my emotions and coincided exactly with my way of thought. The creepiest part, though, is how well it relates exactly to my current situation.Like in the anime, I was on an emotional roller coaster for like 6 months, and now I’m at the point where i’ve decided that even though life is fruitless, there’s no reason to die yet. This anime, I think, carries the most truth and the biggest life lesson I’ve ever seen in a show. The ending was really great. As much as I was begging to see Misaki and Satou kiss or at least hug, I think the more subtle ending worked. And also, who would’ve guessed Satou would have become a traffic cop?!The best part to me, though, is just imagining their future. I know both could just up and kill themselves at any moment, but I don’t think they will. I can see the way their future will probably play out. They continue to do the lectures, gradually fall more in love, after Misaki-chan graduates they’ll get married, and go on with the rest of their lives. I don’t doubt there will be those ‘this is worthless, I should die!’ moments, but overall I think their situation was so perfect in the end it makes me smile just thinking about it.And now, I need to quickly avoid thinking about the series at all. Whenever i watch something like this, I always get really deperessed. Because while you know that everything worked out, you can never convince yourself that it would actually happen to you. That instead, you’ll die all alone. But at the same time, you think ‘wasn’t that the point? that it can happen?’ I always end up thinking about it too much and getting really sad and crying. So I’ll stop ^^;;
EDIT: ZOMG no one told me the spoiler tags were unreadable!!!
Okay, I waited a couple days between posts, yes, I know. Had to sort something out, but it’s cool now, and this ain’t no damn livejournal so I’m not gunna talk about it :p in any event, I have some new episodes to talk about… 7 of LS and DTB as well as I need to watch 2 of Denno Coil, and now that the rest of Manabi Straight is out, i have to watch that soon as well. All of that, though, can wait…
Yeah, okay, so I’m rather late to the party with Welcome to the NHK considering that it’s broadcast ended about 6 months ago, but I’ve been streaming this all at once and absolutely loving it. I can relate heavily to Satou (which, no matter how many times I think about it, frightens the hell outta me.) and the overall plot is just fun and brilliant. It’s one of the only shows I’ve seen that’s deep and psychological while also being really funny; and crazy in a sort of Paranoia Agent way. Satou’s imagination is a wicked world that brings a load of WTF to the table, lol. I can’t help but love the perverse nature of this series…
I’m only up through episode 7 so far, but I’m anxious to get back to watching. Either later or tomorrow I’ll update on LS and DTB.
Wow! A small benchmark for sure, but a benchmark nonetheless. And now knowing that me clicking it has no effect, i can’t help but be excited. The question is, how many people are actually returning and checking up on it? Those are the ones I’d like to extend special thanks to! I can’t believe there are actually that many people interested! I’m so glad.
Anyway, not much is going on today. I have to say, I’m jealous of all you who can wacth raw anime and know what’s going on - having to suffer the struggle of subs is an arduous journey. You have to find out which subs are trustworthy and it sucks when you’re stuck with one simply cuz it’s all you can find. I personally can’t do torrents — the only computers I have access to are ones I have to be increadibly careful with and I will get in massive trouble if i mess them up. So basically, I’m just using streaming sites for the time being.
I’m on the edge of my seat over Darker than Black 7, Lucky Star 7 — both of which I believe have already aired… ? and also Gurren-Lagann 9 is sure to be a treat - for those who haven’t guessed by now I’m already a huge fan.
I’m also a huge fan of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and apparently somethings up. the ASOS Brigade site is talking about Anime Expo a lot on their site. there’s naturally a bbunch of speculation - the most popular theory being that one of the seiyuu will show up at the con. If that’s the case I have no reason to get excited because I have no way of going to AX, but there’s also the idea that the English novels could be released, and THAT I’m excited about! Now, I realize that it’s beyond easy to find English translations of all the novels on the internet, but as a collecter it is my duty to own the copies! (and prolly red them over and over!)
Admittedly, though, when I read the first novel i didn’t find it as interesting as the anime at all. It’s good, but it just lacks that explosive energy of the constantly-moving haruhi and pals. Besides, Kyon repeats himself a few too many times. It’ll still be good to see them, though, because past book one is a whole ton of new/expanded on content that I’m dying to see. (I haven’t read past book 2 out of general laziness)
As for the English DVD release, you can bet I’ll be getting the special edition box. Appalled as I am by the cost of the special edition DVDs, i refuse to watch this show in chronological order. When my fanboy sense tingles, it rumbles >_<
[WARNING!!! HUMUNGOUS, ENORMOUS, DESTRUCTIVE SPOILERS BELOW!!! DON'T READ TILL SEEN!]
Every great show has that one episode in it’s run that’s so amazing it blows your mind. Last year, Haruhi had episode 12, the one where she an Yuki team up with a band for two songs that was directed to well it was awe-inspiring. This year, the top spot is likely to go to Gurren-Lagann — even if there isn’t another great episode for the whole rest of it’s 26 episode run (how couldn’t there be, though) — episode 8 will have to be remembered as one of the greatest episodes of anything all year.
Now, I’m assuming you’ve already seen it or else you’re not dumb enough to be reading this, so I’m going to talk about Kamina’s death casually. Now, we all (or a lot of us) knew this was coming - some were saying it by episode 3, I was saying it by the last episode. I told my brother ‘episode 8, Kamina’s gunna die’. It was even clinched at the beginning of the episode — when Yoko kissed him you just knew it was coming.
Simon’s little Shinji moment threw me off for a second, because while I’m a huge Eva fan, I don’t want this show to become Eva 2, but I am far more confident than that in this show. I think this is going to take a turn for the best - this show has to keep being good. What other show has the balls to kill off the main attention-grabber 1/3 of the way through? None I can think of.
the scene where he was impaled and seemed to be dead was insane. I was deepened with sorrow - my brother started to cry saying ‘he can’t die that way!’. But he didn’t! Kamina managed to direct Simon one last time and die with the coolest attack in the history of time! Giga drill buster was intense! This episode was moving and in every way amazing - and I’ll be damned of any words otherwise. It was epic and explosive, and I couldn’t have asked for a better portrayal of Kamina’s manly downfall. I simply can’t wait to see what happens next.
Sometimes, I can’t stand the internet. It can be a real bitch. There’s always a ton of people you really hate talking about things you don’t like. But then, every once in a while, the internet helps you a ton. Sometimes you make some really cool friends. Sometimes you learn about a new band you come to like. And sometimes a raging stream of reccommendations for a show pours down on you like a waterfall until you simply must watch it.
I walked into Denno Coil with soaring expectations. I’ve read all kinds of great reviews of the first episode, and I was hearing stuff about the real world and online world being fused - something I’ve been interested in even before Serial Expeiments Lain. So was I disappointed? Hell no! In fact, this show’s first episode went above and beyond my expectations.
Now, just to get it out of the way, let me cover what i didn’t like. The little girl was really bloody annoying, and having her right at the beginning yelling ‘poop!’ over and over really threw me off, but i was recaptured! And besides she left not long afterward. And that’s it. That’s all i didn’t like!
The rest was simply great. The way the internet technology was imbedded into the real world was awesome, practical, and yet whimsical, and utterly exciting. Using your figers as a phone? Yes! Having the digital real lie prallel to the real world? I love it! Not to mention the glasses being a sight gateway into the digital world - it all fits together with complete brilliance. i love how they have direct physical contact with the digital world, and how the one girl used the fishing rod to send the little guy into the digital labyrinth.
Setting aside the fact that the entire world appeals to me, I was also a fan of the characters! Yuuko was like a more lively version of Lain, and she was really adorable at all times. Fumie was cool too and her attitude and knowlege made her interesting. Plus, she practically called Yuuko a n00b XD
So yeah, basically everything about this series appeals to me. I will definetally be looking forward to episdoe 2.
Oh, an dI forgot about the damn dog everyone’s so obsessed with, lol. i’ve always hated dogs, but this guy’s an exception cuz even though he’s ugly as hell, he’s still got a charm to him. Flus I love how he flails about and how he looks like he’s on cocaine.
So okay - none of the show’s I’m watching had any new episodes today, so I managed to end up sleeping the greater portion of the day and in the time I wasn’t on the computer - i was jamming the Halo 3 demo. Now, i didn’t buy Crackdown… it just didn’t interest me. I’ve never been a fan of the open-ended style of game, especially not in the GTA style games. I have no interest in killing people or basically doing anything based in a city. I play video games to escape the real world, not destroy it, lol. And besides, i am of the belief that it’s pointless to kill people unless you do it in a way that’s completely badass. Crackdown lets you do that to an extent, but it gets repetitive quick even just watching. No, my brother’s friend is the one who bought it, and since he doesn’t have Xbox live, he let us borrow the game.
Now, as I’m sure anyone who cares has heard a thousand times, there’s a lot wrong with the Beta, which is why there is a beta in the first place really. First of all, it is WAY too easy to get killed. Now, in Halo 2 it was often a bit too hard, I’ll admit. Used to be you could be dual weilding SMG’s and emptying a full clip into someone wouldn’t do the trick. In Halo 3 Beta, though, a single clip of an SMG could kill someone dead.
The weapons are alright. The brutes have their own variation of pretty much every UNSC weapon, none of which are particularly enticing, but all are fully functional. The brute version of the SMG is way better, and the brute shot is so much better in this game it’s unbelievable. The sniper rifles have gotten really hard to aim with for some reason. My brother seemed to be pretty good with it, but I couldn’t put a hit on anyone. the needler has been nerf’d - you can only hold one at a time, though if you have good aim, it shouldn’t be too big a problem I guess. The biggest comeback has to be that they brought back the starting gun from Halo which had been split into the SMG and Battle Rifle in halo 2. It’s back with full force and kicks total ass, and they kept the battle rifle but it sucks hard in comparison.
the biggest problem, if not only problem i have with the weapons has to be the freaking Spartan Gun. Instead of the Spnk-r, we get this tank of a gun that’s utterly remnicent of the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War. It basically has to be charged for about 10 seconds and then it fires off a huge red triple-blast. I guess they thought the fact that it points at you with a laser before it fires would make it fair, but it’s not. The stupid thing aims just as well as a normal gun, and unless you’re packing a sniper rifle, chances are someone can take you by surprise and kill you with it before you can kill them. It’s instant death and it really sucks.
The maps that are out i have mixed feelings toward. forst there’s the snowy area. This place is pretty cool for certain modes — slayer and VIP are both pretty cool here, though things like territories don’t work very well here. next there’s what I guess was their new idea for blood gulch/coagulation. This place is the one that pisses me off. you see, there are two dome-like bases and then a masive, rolling terrain. unlike in Coag, you can’t see the opponent’s base from across the massive landscape, and there is much more terraforming seen here. There’s cliffs, rocks, and a stream running through the middle - almost like they placed elements of burial grounds and coagulation together. There’s less hiding places there, which is kind of lame, but my least favorite part is how easy it is to traverse.
First of all, this game has a new vehicle, a motorbike style one that holds two passengers. One guy drives and another stands on the back and shoots stuff - kind of like a shrunken Warthog, only much faster. Thing is, one of therse babies can cross the field faster than a ghost moving on turbo, and it’s sneaky too. Unlike the outlandish purple ghost with it’s streaks of blue, this thing is harder to see coming and will sneak right by. another thing is that both bases are equipped with what red vs. Blue eloquently titled the ‘man-cannon’ like the teleporters in Halo 2, it will take you directly to the center of the field - only this time you soar through the air and land on one of the halfway cliffs. what makes this less special than the teleporter, though, is that if you’re running away, someone can easily just shoot you out of the air. What’s cool about it, though, is that you can drive the bike into it and ride it through the air, and even better you can use the new version of the SPnk-r, which fires explosive capsules, and fire into the cannon, launching your missiles flying through the air. Both bases carry one of them in the lower story, so if you grab it and chase someone off the cannon, you can shoot into it and when they land, a bonb will land right on them.
the third map is like a revamped Zanzibar. On one side there’s a city–like area and on the other is a long strip of terrain leading out to the ocean. This level uses the most strategy because there are tons of passages, hiding places, and border corssings that make things interesting. It is in this level that we see the real potential in this beta, and every mode that I’ve played on has been fun here.
well, I had planned on talking about something entirely different, but I ended up going on so much about the halo 3 beta i lost my train of thought, lol. Guess I’ll tell you the other thing later. I plan to play halo 3 till the early morning, then go watch Dennou Coil to see what the buzz is about. chow.
It just never gets old, does it? lol.
I’ve been moving around no unlike this image lately. No I don’t mean that I’ve actually gotten up and been hyper as an anime character — there’s just a bunch of projcts I’ve been working on over the past week. this blog is, of course, one of them, as well as me catching up to all the anime I’ve been missing. I’ve got forum RPGs in every direction, namely one I’m managing on the Otakubaords which I’ve put an especially maniacal effort into. Then of course there’s all the forum-hopping and posting - plus this new ipod to keep me company. i love the mental stimulation, and I’ve been having a great fun keeping up with it all. After a long period of boredom, I needed the pick-up.
As far as the blog goes, it’s interesting. I find myself getting angry at the fact that it counts as a ‘hit’ every time I open the page, which constitutes for a good 3/4 of the hits, but I can’t help but feel proud every time i come here and see that there’s several more hits than the last time i left, lol. I still wish you guys would give me some requests, though. I have too much time that needs more cramming, lol. as for today, I still need to get that Sola page up then sweep through and beef all the pages a little, and maybe later I’ll catch up on Nodame Cantabile.
NOTE: i’m actually so distracted that I abandoned the comp for a full hour in the course of posting this, lol.
6:30 Edit: Sola page up ^_^ i never realized how much I hated about this show till I wrote it out, lol
Oi! Two comments in the comment bank, yay for me! lol. It’s funny, I’m on the internet so often that I constantly want to make new posts here, but I don’t want to do it cuz someone’s going to end up coming to my week-old blog and it’s gunna look like it’s been running for months, haha! Well, it hadn’t first ocured to me that you don’t actually post on those pages, just edit, so I figure what I’m going to do is continue to edit the page with episode, starting from when I created the page. Right now, I just watched the 6th episode of Lucky Star, Darker Than Black, and Sola, so you’re going to see a lot of
Episode 7
Going up in the next couple days. I figure the pages will end up freaking huge, but they will be easy to navigate. I want it to be there not only for people who are looking for an opinion on an episode, but also for people who want to read and see if they would like it; or even for people who can’t get a hold of the anime and are relying on my descriotions for learning about it. For these reasons, I will try to keep spoilers tegged or at least sectioned off.
In the interest of keeping up-to-date but not over-posting, I’m just going to do one post a day and edit it as the day goes on — for instance after i go watch the recently-appeared sub of ep 7 of Gurren-Lagann. In about an hour I’ll also get up the Sola, DTB, and G-L pages.
EDIT @ 8:45 — well, I got up the DTB page and I don’t know if I can get the others. I got distracted because my mom won an ipod nano. This thing is amazing! i mean, I always knew they were great, but the quality on this thing exceeds my all of my computers’ speakers by so much that I think I’ll have to listen to it while online from now on. I’ve heard several songs in a way I never have before and it’s simply amazing. One of my alltime favorite songs, this Apparatus Must Be Unearthed by The Mars Volta just hit me with hurricane force!
Alrighty then! Currently I am in the process of creating pages for various anime which I can update with each new episode that i see. That way there will be a whole bunch of thooughly comprehensive opinionated pages of stuff. I’ll create a page for Darker Than Black soon as I get a good version of episode 6, since the one I tried watching before was corrupted and ended like halfway through >_<. Once more, I would very much like it if people suggest me onto new series since I have a hard time figuring out what to watch and what to ignore. just don’t suggest me onto any Jump stuff — chances are i’m urposefully avoiding it.
If anyone has any suggestions of things for me to do to help the blog altogether, they will be greatly appreciated as well. And of course, thanks go out to those reading it!
First post, eh? It’s always the hardest. After all, what am I supposed to talk about? You guys are probably here to read about anime, manga, video games, music, or anything else of the sort. What I say outside of these fields is probably not of much consequene here, though I suppose that since it’s my blog I can really do as I please. In any event, this is my anime blog and hopefully I will get lots of response from fellow anime fans who share my opinions on stuff.
For those who don’t know me, my name is 21st Century Digital Boy (well, not really, but my real name is a spoiler). I hang out on certain sites quite often (namely Megatokyo and Otakuboards) so if you’ve seen me somewhere, that’s cool. It’s probably how you managed to get here ^^;;
Anyway, I might as well jump right in with my next post and talk about some of the anime I’m watching. If anyone wants a list beforehand of what i’m watching and can be expected to talk about…
Manabi Straight
Darker Than Black
Hidamari Sketch
Sola
Lucky Star
Nodame Cantabile
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Haibane Renmei (yes, i’m behind)
If you feel the need to suggest me onto other anime, feel free to do so, and if possible shoot me some links. Thanks!
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