Springs impressions! You're all probably sick of them by now…
27 April 2008
Alright, so, I think I’ve watched almost everything I wanted to watch this season. I have to say that I’m watching more shows this season than any other season since I’ve started blogging, which is not saying much, but just means I bit off way too much than I can chew. So, in a very particular order, some really, really hasty impressions of the spring season!
Real Drive
Production I.G turns out some really snappy looking series. This is one of them. The story so far, one episode into the series, is a bit blurry. So, there was this diver, he dove and something catastrophic happened and the world changed and he slept in a coma for fifty years. His scientific researcher buddy, in the meanwhile, was extremely busy. They have this thing called Metal or the Material Network. It’s all near future sci-fi happiness.
Macross Frontier
I know almost nothing about Macross, one might call me a Macross virgin of sorts, but since I have feeling that most bloggers out there are not and are probably going to follow this show closely, I picked it up. First impressions? I wasn’t in total shock and awe, it felt like a pretty standard mecha anime. You can almost replace the fighters with gundams and the aliens with the Covenant from Halo, and it’ll still work. Everything was like eye candy, especially that kabuki princess of a protagonist and the cute little girl with puppy dog ears for hair. Then, there’s that pop idol. My only understanding of Macross is the fact that the aliens hate Japanese pop music, I may or may not be wrong. This Cheryl person, with her pretty lollipop pink hair, I just don’t know what to make off. All that aside, I think I’m in for a pretty good show. (Though, I don’t know half as much about Macross as I do gundam, for a serious comparison, you always have this.)
Kurenai
Kurenai’s opening, let me just put this out there, was so damn weird. Moving right along, with two episodes under my belt, I can’t say that I’m impressed by the series. Some moments were boring and I really haven’t worked up the urge to see the rest of it. However, with all the noise over the blogosphere about it, I guess I’ll stick with it. The characters are pretty enjoyable. The little girl was the real surprise of the show. She’s like the little prizes they used to have in cereal. Murasaki’s ignorance to the way the world actually works is quite amusing, especially when she is reprimanded for not thanking the lady at the bath.
That aside, the only real puzzle so far is Shinkuro’s arm. What is up with that arm? When he takes out the thugs at the bar and the old bartender’s cowering under the table, calling him a monster, there was such a look of pain on his face. For a second, I wondered if Kurenai’ll end up being one of those “I’m a monster, the world won’t accept me, but the tiny loli I babysit might” things.
Toshokan Sensou
Thank god someone picked up this show. It was on the top of my list for show I wanted to see this season and one of the last to be subbed. Toshokan Sensou has a ridiculous story. Library Wars, just the name, Library Wars, they’re fighting over books! It’s a completely plausible idea, though. The whole media act and liberty act things escalade into a full scaled conflict. What I love about these military type anime series is the fact that, with the exception of say Code Geass or GiT, they’re completely isolated to Japan. The rest of the world just sits and watches as Japan tears itself up internally over media. The imagery of Kasahara’s (Yoko, Yoko! Marina Inoue is like an omnipresent seiyuu, she’s everywhere, all the time!) librarian savior reminded a bit of Phoenix Wright. The budding romance between Kasahara and her short Lieutenant, Dojo, is cute.
And just one quick question, what’s with the uniforms? My mother thought I was watching a show on the People’s Liberaton Army. Honestly, those green uniforms do make them look like they rolled out of the PLA. As for the Media Act guys, why do the villains in all shows look like Nazis?
That aside, I was rather overjoyed by how funny and how cute the series was. It lived up to all my expectations while I almost died watching for someone to sub the damn thing. I realized that it was a show about fighting librarians, trained, armed librarians and then I loved it all the more.
Soul Eater
Soul Eater took me a bit by surprise. I found out after three episode that it was a Bones production, and I’m not the only one surprised, and I went “Ehhh?” After all twenty five something episodes of Darker Than Black, the pure shonen fun that Soul Eater (I mean, just look at Black Star) seems to just sprout and make out of thin air is large mental speed bump to get over. Then again, I sure as hell am not complaining. Halfway through the first episode, I realized, Christ, I’m going to love blogging about this and for the first time in a really long time, I felt compelled to make a post not to just save my poor dying blog from utter oblivion, but because Soul Eater was just too hard to resist.
And, as an added bonus, I got to see T. M. Revolution (mind you, I was three meters away from a Japanese pop idol and yes, I screamed like a crazy fangirl, he sang Heart of Sword for god’s sake!) perform the opening theme ‘Resonance’ live. The theme and the music (Taku Iwasaki from Gurren Lagann’s fine work) goes indecently well with the whole tone of the show. It’s like the kid’s version, quite possibly the better version, of D.Gray Man (the anime failed me completely after a good two season. Damn fillers.) with quirkier humor and everything else.
Death the Kid is probably about the funniest character ever, not only does Mamoru Miyano do such a wonderful job voicing Kid, but Kid’s freakish OCD for all things perfect and symmetrical is just hilarious. His twin pistols are probably the only thing not balanced in his life and the moment where he grabs there breasts and wails in despair at their unequal sizes had me falling out of my chair.
Speaking of voice actors, there’s a whole thing going on with Maka’s newbie seiyuu, as Owen pointed out, and I have to agree with him that, while I did note how she sounded like an estranged teenager, I thought it was quite fitting. Of course, the presence of one of my favorite seiyuus, Toru Ohkawa (Roy Mustang! More fangirl screaming!) as Death Scythe, Maka’s hilariously melodramatic father, is priceless.
Apparently, the first three episodes made up the prologue and the real story begins thereafter, I’m curious to see what the real story is. The fact that Black Star has collected no eggs so far, that Maka and Soul lost all of their eggs and that Kid, by the end of episode, has no eggs either probably that for the majority of the 50 episode show, they might either 1) spend all of their time collecting the eggs; 2) they do a time skip; 3) I’m completely wrong either way!
Before the season started, I really wasn’t planning on watch Soul Eater. I read the manga and it felt hopelessly generic, but the anime blew me out of the water. I’m not quite sure if I’m just jumping the bandwagon on this one, or maybe it’s because I like Bones, or maybe it’s because I’m still a sucker for shonen, but Soul Eater is a definite must watch, even if it is 50 episodes long.
Kaiba
Kaiba, being what it is, comes highly recommend. I must admit that the animation style caught me a little off guard, even though I was fully prepared for something extraordinary and unconventional. The whole thing felt a bit like Samurai Jack, which really surprised me. It had that eerie sci-fi feel and I was incredibly creeped out by all of it.
Kaiba is a show that needs to be picked apart delicately to be truly understood and enjoyed. So, correct me if I’m wrong, there’s the age old divide between the rich and the poor. The rich live above the clouds and their only interaction with the poor is when they hunt for new bodies. Apparently, people, if you can call them that, can switch bodies. Their entire conscience exists on a little triangular cone (that reminds me so much of Simon’s drill from Gurren Lagann), little flashdrives that carry their personality, their memories and whatever else have you. The protagonist, with a glaring hole in his chest, a locket with a picture of a girl and a strange, triangular symbol on his stomach and no memory is probably just as confused and lost as I am at this point.
The show takes time and effort to expose much of this world to us as possible, in the form of village people gathering to find a kid’s brother, a strange floating, rotating family of geometrically shaped heads and a bickering couple. I found that whole scene, when they were looking for the brother’s memory chip (what are those little things called anyway?) to be quite humorous. People are just like data, your body isn’t really your body, it’s just a vehicle. If your wife can come home as a hippo or a snake, then, well, yeah…There’s also Popo (Romi Paku right there), who divulges another chunk of back story. And the creepy squid things that eat people, and a one eyed bird thing, and, and, and!
I’ve only seen the first episode, I can’t say much at the moment. But I’m going to say that Kaiba is going to be one hell of a sci-fi series. It feels like a combination of all good things about science fiction with cute, cuddly, loose and fluid aesthetics, which adds to the creepiness of everything.
Code Geass R2
Well, well, well, where do I start?
Firstly, the Chinese people, the Chinese people, where the hell did the Chinese people come from? I mean, for one, the representation of the English in Geass was already terrible, and now the Chinese are dragged in as well.
Secondly, Knight of Rounds? Really? Really? You’re going to shove more characters into the show with a cast of a billion already? More, need I say, gorgeous but completely superfluous CLAMP characters that are all going to probably end up dead in the water after this season? More ridiculous names and titles that I won’t remember? And, who the hell is that blond kid with the pretty blue eyes? They all have matching cloaks of varying color, they all apparently watch the news together. But since when did Code Geass turn into Bleach without the shinigamis and with mechs?
Thirdly, why does everyone have a Geass now? You know, the Geass power used to be special, but now the emperor has it and his ridiculous trap of a fake brother has it. Who doesn’t have it? Buy two, get one free deal on freakish alien powers that make pretty lights dance in your eye!
Fourthly, Suzaku’s character is really starting to annoy me. He went from being a nice kid, to a lunatic depressed widow, to turning in his best friend of a promotion and now he’s settled quite nicely in the role of being the Emperor’s cute, little bitch with a fancy mech.
Fifthly, (now, that just sounds odd) why did they do that memory thing? It scared me to pieces! It felt like the show was starting all over again. Zero is dead, the Black Knights are like three people now plus C.C. and Kallen is dressed up in a bunny suit? Thankfully, after a very season one-esque meeting between C.C. and Lelouch, everything’s back on track.
Lastly, I have to commend Sunrise, really, for a not so bad start of the second season. I still refuse to jump the Code Geass bandwagon and hail it as some sort of a brilliant mecha series, or a brilliant any kind of series, but I will admit, it’s getting pretty good. Now, to downloading the fourth episode…
I also watched Monochrome Factor and Crystal Blaze. Nothing to talk about there, unfortunately. Kanokon and Neo Angelique are on my list of possible things to watch later, I just can’t pass up the bishies.
We already have a lot of them, what’s the problem in adding one more? I was actually watching out for Real Drive, but it seems subbers aren’t very interested in the series: the third episode’s raw is already floating, and yet no one has subbed past episode one.
I heard Monochrome Factor was a shounen-ai series. While I’m not a homophobe, I don’t like homosexuality between two men, either. 😛
Monochrome Factor suffers from lackluster production values, same with Amatsuki, two series which could’ve been at least redeemed itself with eyecandies (like their manga counterparts).
And well it goes without saying that Toshokan Sensou is <33 XD
if you’re into more thought provoking stuff, I’d recommend Himitsu. Episodes 2-3 especially nailed it for me as one of the best Spring offerings. I’m just sad that subs past episode 1 hasn’t come out so other people can see its beauty =__=
“3) I’m completely wrong either way!”
I’ve heard this is the answer to your question. It wouldn’t be any fun if it was just a soul a week show.
Kurenai’s magic begins from episode 03 onwards.
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