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Baccano!- Episode 13 (oh, God…!!) · 24 November 2007
It’s over, it’s over, it’s over!!
It was perfect, perfect, like a good ending should be. I’m not really making sense. But everything, all the things I wanted to happen and all the things that needed to happen. Claire and Chane are getting married, everyone’s immortal, Jacuzzi kicked that flamethrower guy’s ass, Firo and Ennis are together, that old bastard Szilard is dead, Czes stopped being emo in his head.
And that scene, with everyone on top of the train, with Jacuzzi and Nice and Donny and Isaac and Miria and Czes, riding into that sunrise, happiest moment, ever. Baccano! was amazing, honestly. They managed to tie everything together, everything. Even stuff from the beginning, like Claire’s promise to find Chane, even though back in like episode two or three, I had no idea who or what he was talking about. And the guys that set the glove on fire and triggered that whole chain of events, they’re back, too. Randy and Pezzo, yeah, they set Szilard on fire. And, and, and! Dallas Genoard, oh god, I laughed long and hard at him. Judging from the opening, I thought he’d end up in a test tube and he did! But before that, he spent a year at the bottom of the Hudson!
Waaaahhhh!! Isaacuuu!!!! Miiriiiia!!!!!
Oh god, stuff like that just makes you all happy and giddy on the inside. I’m out to get my hands on the light novels, even if they’re in Japanese. The epilogue, 2001, that was so nostalgic, basically because I live on the damn Manhattan island, but I can remember the very first episode, where the camera panned down the same street, the same buildings, ending in that first shot and it’s the same street, same block, different day. Ooh, the many birthdays to come.
Fantastic, that’s about it. That’s the only way I can describe it, from the names to the plot, everything, just fantastic. It was like living in a dream. The buoyancy and warmth that Baccano! has is contagious. It’s really just about living life. There’s nothing terrible about being immortal, the glass is half full, you’ll get to have as many birthdays as you want. Just jump up and down, yell, scream, break something, live in the moment.
Waaaah!!! It was just so good, I’m satisfied, I can die happy now.
I’m going to miss this show, going to miss it a lot. It was such a trip, such a deliciously crazy trip.
Oh god, it’s over. No, no, actually, not all, not all….
(I even made a tag specifically for this, ‘YAHOO!!’)
Dude, where's my last Baccano! episode? · 23 November 2007
ARGH! Even the Italian fansubbers are done subbing Baccano!…!!! So, where the hell is the English fansub? Why does Ayu take three million and two years to sub an episode!? Just one last episode, one, one, one…one….
Before this post deteriorates even further into an incoherent rant, let’s actually talk about Baccano! It’s easier said than done. Curiously enough, I’ve been faithfully following this series since it first aired and managed only to blog about it once. With the advent of WordPress 2.3 and tags, I think I’ve managed to sneak in a couple mentions of Baccano! here and there, but have yet to actually address anything truly relevant to the show. And, so, with one last episode left to go and that nasty cliffhanger from episode twelve taunting me, I’m going to attempt the almost impossible.
The cast is huge. It’s huge, it’s bigger than Sailor Moon. I mean, with Sailor Moon you can at least categorize the Sailor Scouts. They’ve all got that nice sailor outfit with the matching colors and planets and transformation scenes. Even when they start adding outer planets, it’s not that hard. Uranus and Neptune go together, Pluto (which isn’t even a planet anymore) and Saturn go together. You get the Sailor Stars, but there’s only three. And, there’s a million villains, but they all die anyways. And yes, the cats and Chibi moon. Packaged and done.
So, what about Baccano!? Not only does it completely disregard the laws of time and space (it does time skips at least three times an episode), it manages to fully develop every single character that ever appears, ever. You’ve got the White Suits, the Black Suits, the Gandors, Jacuzzi and his gang, Isaac and Miria, Firo and Ennis, creepy old men, Dallas and Eve, the creepy little kid Czeslaw, Claire (who is a man), Chane, Ladd Russo and Lau and…I’m running out of fingers. Oh! Yes! The information shop guys, the president, that little girl, Nick, Rachael, the guy with the glasses and all those Chinese people running around Chinatown. And I still think I’m missing a few.
In the very beginning, the first few episodes, everything just felt so chaotic. You’re watching it with your jaw half open, wondering exactly how in the name of God will this end? It was either the most brilliant plot line ever devised and set into motion, or it was the most delicious catastrophe every concocted. Just watching it, just the way it felt, it couldn’t have been bad. If it turned out to be a train wreck, it’d be the most amazing train wreck, ever. And, it didn’t really make any sense.
I don’t usually do images, but since there’s so much text, here’s a pictorial distraction. It also organizes all the characters very nicely, mhm.
With one episode left, I’m fully confident that, indeed, Baccano! was the most amazing train wreck, ever. I don’t know where to start! Isaac and Miria, Isaac and Miria, they’re so silly, so out of their minds, so zany and insane, it’s wonderful. You know that they’ll save any overly dramatic scene with their presence. They’re a big part of reason why Baccano! manages to shine so brightly. Sometimes I’m not really sure if the hilarity and ignorance are just covers for their true intentions, that they actually do what they do out of the pure goodness of their hearts. Or, it really just luck and craziness that brings all of these people together, haphazard happenings dictated by some strange force.
Every single character in Baccano! manages to be in the spotlight. All of the characters, with their terribly fantastic English names, are so outrageous they’re almost competing to outdo each other. Case and point, Ladd Russo and Vino. Ladd Russo, short and simple, is just crazy and crazy is an understatement. He’s fickle, he’s fiendish, he’s a killer without judgment or morals. He is the embodiment of a homicidal maniac. For God’s sake, his display of love is vowing to be the killer of his wife. You can’t get any crazier than that. Surprisingly enough, he gets tricked by Vino and plunges off the train to save his wife, so he can kill her later. And, they’re flying through the air, they’re just looking at each other and you can actually feel some sort of twisted compassion from Ladd Russo, the only thing on my mind was, Christ, that man is weird.
Then, you have Vino, who is the ‘Young Conductor’. I always wondered why he didn’t have a fancy name like everyone else did, until he was revealed to be the show’s greatest secret. Claire, for a while, I really thought they were talking about a man, well, Claire’s crazy, too. Think Ladd Russo with morals, a conscience and some sick acrobatic skills. I’ll just put it out there, I like Claire. He’s one helluva an anti-hero. He kills people not because he likes it, but he kills them out of his personal moral code of sorts. Like Dexter, from the new Showtime series. Serial killers with a vendetta. He genuinely cared for the old Conductor and went bananas when he found out the White Suits murdered him. And, he has the most amazing shade of red hair. And, I’m hoping he gets married with Chane. And, I’m just hoping he lives. Claire looks to be the only mortal of the group, but he’s holding up pretty well.
Another one, for your distraction. I just can’t get enough of the art.
In short, Baccano! is like some crazy pulp fiction story, with all the action (Isaac and Miria, with Czeslaw swing on a rope knocking over that crazy guy with a flamethrower trying to kill Jacuzzi. Nice getting off on explosives.), the laugh out loud English names (Jacuzzi Splott? Need I say more?), the blood and gore (see Vino and Russo’s respective killing sprees), the comic relief (a.k.a. the best part of the story. Most recently, the car scene from episode eleven), the plot twists (immortality! Alchemists! Ennis is a homuculus! Rail tracer is a hot guy with a woman’s name!), the randomness (Isaac and Miria, ’nuff said), the cute, righteous ‘protagonist’ (Firo is cute, but in this vast ocean of characters he’s hardly a protagonist, but he sure looks the part) and everything else….tossed into one gigantic blender set on high and served with a luscious dose of all the jazz and flare of 1930’s New York. And you know what? It’s still got one episode left! One episode I have not seen and am dying to see.
Baccano! is like the summer blockbuster no one went to see, which is a real shame. It was one of those things I really didn’t expect, I mean, the promo art made it look good, but not this good. I was worried, honestly, that it’d collapse under it’s own weight, it’s own self consciousness. But it didn’t, it stood steady, with enough bravado, enough of a devil may care attitude, carrying the huge cast of characters, the intricate plot, moving onwards without loosing sight of it’s goals. You know what? The whole thing was just fun, pure, unadulterated fun. It’s like the Ocean’s Eleven of the summer. Flashy, big and, hopefully, will go out with a bang. Granted, Ocean’s Eleven and Baccano! have very little in common…you get the point.
Next week on “Dude, where’s my episode?”, the mysterious disappearance and reappearance and subsequent disappearance of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei! When will ‘sayonara’ finally be forever? Will the second season appear at all? Find out next time on “Dude, where’s my episode?”!
Woah! We're halfway there! Woah! Livin' on a prayer! · 23 November 2007
This post is brought to you by The ABC (Roxas, Mike, Kaura, CCYoshi, Martin,Hige, J.Valdez, Owen S), and no, we’re not American Born Chinese.
If I learned anything from the new fall season, it’s embracing mediocrity. And, I mean it in a good way. Who said mediocrity was a bad thing? I wrote a post back in the beginning of the season about the ‘gem’ of the fall season, in retrospect, why does there even have to be a gem? People’s judgment are so clouded by the elitist sentiment these days that they go about rejecting things purely on the basis of it being dumb. How smart does a show have to be for it to be entertaining? Maybe a show centered purely around the intricate aspects of quantum mechanics better suit your tastes, because, obviously you’re way above the everyday anime.
Every once in a while, I’d just like some pure entertainment, like a summer blockbuster with all the special affects, all the car chases, big explosion and random guys standing half naked with a gun and his back to a blazing ball of fire. Every once in a while, I’d like something stupid, something incredibly moronic, something shallow. Does every episode, every character, every possible need to carry some symbolic meaning? No, I’d prefer them not to and yes, it sounds like I’m advocating stupidity. But then, is what you’re advocating really intelligent?
Anyways, here we are, at the halfway mark. I have to confess, I’m only actually watching four or five shows right now and probably should listen to me own advice. But, surprisingly, I’m having trouble just keeping up with those four or five. I didn’t get around to watching episodes 06 and 07 of anything till yesterday morning. I’m still waiting on that one last episode of Baccano! from the summer season, it’s so good, and just so good. And, whatever happened to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei? Right, before I start ranting about that…Onwards, to my favorite and, according to some, possibly the stupidest show of the season, Rental Magica!
All right, so lets break it down. The male lead faints in half the episodes. The female lead, who is most blatantly in love with the male lead, uses ancient Celtic magic and throws mistletoe. The two other supporting characters uses cats and pieces of paper on a wooden stick. There’s also a ghost. They run a magician rental company. Every once in a while, they all get caught up in a real jam and the male lead rips off his eye patch, goes, quite literally, (they share the same seiyuu, they sound almost identical) Lelouch and gives out random, very concise and almost nonsensical orders (Honami! Fire your mistletoe 24.56 degrees, three meters ahead!). What’s not to love?
Going with my previous rant, that’s all you have to love. The flashy action, the random orders, the characters, that’s about it. I mean, the only reason I really wanted Rental Magica, aside from the plot, was the nice promo art. That’s really why I decide to watch a lot of anything, the book cover, the commercial, the promo art. Itsuki was cute, damn cute. But peaking just a bit behind the curtain, Rental Magica gives you some amazing characters. Itsuki Iba, despite the general consensus, is some solid hero material. He just needs to step past his own fear, which he does in half the episodes (forget that he faints). It might be that ridiculous Glam Sight power, but apparently the more he uses the worse it is for him. I’m projecting that he learns to fight without it and saves the the world in the end.
Then you have Honami, who, I’m telling you, is so in love with Itsuki. It’s cute, it’s terribly cute to a fault. You know, almost all the girls are in love with Itsuki and its pretty obvious why. The guy’s so shy and timid and he has a heart of gold. When other fangirls have a thing for the badass, evil type, I have a thing for the clumsy, shy type. Anyways, Honami, I can’t call her a tsundere, I actually don’t know what to call her. She cares, a lot, for Itsuki is always the first one to his rescue, the first one to shriek when he faints. Episode four, I think, really peeled back a layer of their relationship and I thought it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. The cuteness, the drama, the creepy red moon!
Things just started getting interesting around episode seven, when the little homunculus girl showed up. Apparently her brother was a co-founder of Astral, the company Itsuki presides over, and is an incredibly powerful alchemist and is out to, I assume, destroy Itsuki and his company. I was really hoping he’d be that guy at the very end of the opening, but it seems its too early for that. (Side note, the guy in the end of the opening is cute, very cute, his cuteness rivals that of Itsuki’s). And, what about Itsuki’s father? He’s not really dead, he’s just missing, so does that mean he shows up in the end? Anything can happen, because so far, the show has been episodic.
Nekoyashiki-san, the cat guy that looks like Gin, said there’s charm to Itsuki’s personality (or, something like that) and I’m willing to say that this ‘charm’ permeates through the entire series. It captures both the normal and the magical world in such clarity and instead of having the lead character be the greatest magician ever, he’s the worst magician, ever. Hell, he’s not even a magician!
To hell with it not being smart, to hell with everything. The show is entertaining, just like Night Wizard and Gundam 00 (I’m willing to say that G00 is pure mecha porn with some political banter that doesn’t make sense). It’s a good solid series, I just have a problem when people start calling things ‘stupid’ when they have no idea what the hell they’re talking about.
If I had more time, I’d go on some rant about G00, but I’m two minutes short of a deadline. Ah! (Heh, time waits for no one.)
Feel the rainbow, taste the rainbow · 16 November 2007
I still have at least three hours of backlog sitting on my computer, some major catching up to in terms of Rental Magica, Dragonaut, G00 and Night Wizard. This post isn’t anything new, rather, it’s a response, a hasty response at that. I’m actually supposed to be packing and practicing for a three day competition, but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve been waiting, literally, ages for Owen to post on Gurren Lagann and he finally did. I’ve also been looking for an excuse to write about GL, here’s my juicy opportunity and I’m going to go for it.
Gurren Lagann
I think, by now, I don’t have to explain that I turn into a complete raving lunatic when Gurren Lagann comes up in any conversation. (Refer to the cat proximity example.) The sheer brilliance of Gurren Lagann warrants such lunacy, such insanity and such total abandonment of all that is considered logical and sane. I don’t really care if its the ‘magnum opus’ of anything. It was, for me at least, the greatest ode to life. I mean, the thing is stapled, etched, burned, weld, crazy glued to my brain, my memories, it’ll haunt me for the rest of my life. Simon is my Odysseus, Rossiu is my Oedipus (don’t ask), I can’t speak, think, do anything without, somehow, relating it to Gurren Lagann. I don’t know what that is, but I’ll say one thing, that’s genius, pure, raw, unabated genius.
And here’s why this post is, in a seemingly random gesture, titled “Feel the rainbow, taste the rainbow”. It’s the Skittles advertising slogan, but hell, its effective, its catchy, it even rhythms, slightly. You’ve all seen the commercials, right? There are a couple of guys sitting on a rainbow, popping skittles into their mouths, in absolute shock and awe, of course. Then one guy suddenly realizes that, wait, they’re sitting on a rainbow? That’s not poss-and, he falls off the rainbow. Gurren Lagann is like eating Skittles, the whole thing is about believing that the impossible is possible, that there is no limit, that there is no challenge too great, obstacle too obstinate or task too daunting. And you know what, just believe it, just leave it be.
In reference to another xkcd comic, the normal approach is useless here. Gurren Lagann isn’t meant to be dissected, or examined, or even discussed really. Okay, that last one there’s a lie, but as the majority of the viewers have demonstrated, speaking coherently about Gurren Lagann is difficult. Usually, I’m all for the dissection and discussion, heck, that’s why I have a blog, but I’m just willing to drown and wallow in the resonating silence that accompanies this show. Just a lot of gaping and gawking, the whole “I’m done, I think I’ve seen the greatest thing on Earth” sorta thing.
Magnum Opus?
Owen’s calling a magnum opus, basically, whatever the hell he wants it to be, a purely subjective matter. While I do agree with that definition, in retrospect, the subjective magnum opus isn’t doing the show, or the creator, any justice. As for my definition, I’m forsaking my own opinions for the general consensus. I mean, I liked GL, the majority of the viewers liked GL, but the greater majority liked Evangelion. I’ll make the distinction right here, Gurren Lagann is my favorite but Evangelion is the magnum opus. When the ever so fickle general consensus shifts, I’m willing to follow. (However, I’m sticking to guns when it comes to Bebop. Code Geass’ got nothing on Bebop.) C’mon, Evangelion was like dropping a ten kiloton nuke in the middle of a pond and going, “Gee, that made a big splash.”
People have this whole thing with defining terms, and I’m really not willing to get into a whole semantics argument. Language is infinitely lacking in its ability to properly communicate and represent concepts, ideas, anything for that matter, I’m just leaving it at that. Subjectivity leads to more subjectivity and it ultimately leads to nowhere. Much like nuclear fission, this whole magnum opus thing is like a chain reaction. Asking what a magnum opus is, how do we define the term, is, in my opinion, the anime blogsphere equivalent to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m under the impression that the questions are asked with the intention of provoking a response, almost like poking a beehive with a stick just to see what will happen.
I guess, the point of this is, well, life is simple. Relish in its simplicity, in the fact that Gurren Lagann needs no reasonable explanation, the fact that the term ‘magnum opus’ needs no real definition, that general consensus is just the general consensus, pure and simple. Life is very simple, contrary to popular belief, forget the technicalities, the fine print and the little details.
Don’t question the rainbow, feel the rainbow, taste the rainbow.
Moyashimon – Reasons to love cute, dancing microbes! Squee! · 6 November 2007
After what seemed like the longest time (and quite possibly the worst, the flat out worst, test-taking experience of my life) I finally crawled back to my cave of a room, clicked on those orange stripped traffic cone and went through the entirety of my backlog. I’ve been most depressingly busy, trying to balance NaNoWriMo, anime and bombing tests all at the same time.
I went through about ten episodes (I’m giving up Hero Tales, depresses the hell out of me, but I fell asleep after the opening) , and I’ve got Rental Magica 05 sitting on my desktop and I’m waiting for Gunam 00 05 in avi, but Moyashimon was probably the most interesting. I’m more than ready to jump the bandwagon and praise and laud and love Moyashimon as the next big thing, but I’m not without my reasons. I mean, c’mon! Dancing microbes? Dancing microbes! Dancing microbes?! (The question mark and the exclamation mark, together, denotes how fantastic the idea is.)
Moyashimon, in two words, is freakishly cute. Freakish because what I’m describing are little microbes, floating through the air and talking in high pitched voices, and cute because, well, aren’t they just adorable? They’re like tiny, tiny marshmallows, don’t you just feel their squishy plumpness when Sawaki plucks them out of the air? And speaking of Sawaki, I’ve completely neglected the actual, human characters.
I was under the impression that Moyashimon was about a bunch of bacteria, so much for that idea, the series is translated as “Tales of Agriculture”. Sawaki and Kei are freshmen at an agriculture university, and the school is just as strange as one would expect it to be. My freshman orientation did not involve a depressing missing persons report, I did not witness any large, over-sized radishes on my first day, I did not cross paths with livestock and, apparently, a professional pooper scooper and my professor most certainly did not (and hopefully never will) suck a bird’s innards from its anus. Just so you know, I laughed long and hard at that bird sucking scene, that was worse than seeing a seal fermenting in the ground.
Sawaki and Kei seem inseparable, they come in a pair, like shoes, chopsticks, like night and day, war and peace. You can’t have one without the other and you probably don’t want just one, what good is one chopstick? What good is just peace? (Sarcasm? Yes? Yes? No..?) Sawaki is the son of a yeast factory owner and has the (shocking) ability to see microbes, every single one of them. Kei is the son of a sake brewery owner and has the (shocking) inability to see microbes, every single one of them. And now you understand why they attend an agriculture university, in Tokyo.
Sawaki is played by Daisuke Sakaguchi, the same person as Jacuzzi Splott on Baccano!, and his voice had been nagging me forever, it was so familiar but I just couldn’t remember. And Kei is played by Mitsuki Saiga, Rossiu from Gurren Lagann and I’ll have to admit, I couldn’t tell at all. Shame on me, XD
Everything in Moyashimon seems to come in pairs. Kawahama and Misato are such quirky characters as well, the tall man and the fat man brewing sake in the most ridiculous ways possible. Granted, the whole rice chewing, insect eggs bit was just a little disturbing, a little, I say, a little!
Haruka, along with Prof. Itsuki also make a strange duo. The entire first episode she seemed obsessed with revealing Sawaki as a fraud, only to acquiesce to his powers after he diagnoses her athlete’s foot. The entire second episode, well, she didn’t do anything strange in the second episode and in the third episode, she went bananas after drinking the homemade sake and tried to kill Kawahama and Misato. As for the professor, do I even need to elaborate after the bird innards incident how strange and weird and just how “omgwtf” he is? Funniest moment: when he confesses his admiration to Kawahama and Misato for being such impassioned research students.
I love the characters in Moyashimon, almost as much as I do the floating, squeaking microbes. I’m actually quite amazed because, after three episodes, the animation is still as flawless as it was back in episode one. (It might have something to do with it being only eleven episodes long, but, it’s still pretty damn amazing.) Every line seems to be magically in the right place, every movement fluid and smooth, every facial expression just right. Sawaki and Kei are certainly not bad looking, but they’re not downright, drop dead gorgeous, they’re incredibly normal. Everyone, aside from being eccentric and strange, is just normal.
I’m not quite sure where this is all heading, but there does appear to be an underlying plot revolving around that fermentation cellar they were going to build and obviously, Sawaki’s abilities. Moyashimon has definitely got my attention, something new, shiny and strange in the midst of all the old, dull and familiar (like another eroge spin off, or two). I just can’t believe I left it sitting there for so long.
And yes, I saw that microbe labeled A.Niger with the black ‘dreads’ and the ‘deep voice’.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OVA · 3 November 2007
I had no idea there was going to be a Gurren Lagann DS game, that motivates me more than even the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl to actually buy a DS. But what I’m really in it for is the OVA that comes with the game. I literally jumped when I saw the torrent this morning, somewhere between excitement and nostalgia, somewhere between wanting to see it and not at the same time.
It broke my heart to hear that theme song again and to see Simon, Kamina and Yoko together. It was like twelve minutes of random happiness. It was such a weird OVA, too. Apparently, the Gurren Lagann is parked in the middle of nowhere. Yoko’s working on her rifle, Simon’s cleaning his Lagann and Kamina is just sleeping. A beastman (well, it’s a female, so is she a beastwoman? Beastgirl?) pops out and draws on Kamina’s glasses with a marker. Kamina, thinking he’s blind, wakes up and starts yelling. Then, the same beastgirl appears, cleans his glasses and offers to clean the Gurren which, thanks to Kamina’s laziness, is in terrible condition.
As soon as she starts to clean the Gurren, a random ganmen jumps out and starts to attack them, even knocking over Leeron’s little office with a stray shell. Since the Gurren is being washed, Simon, Kamina and Yoko head off to defeat the ganmen in only the Lagann. Seeing how the ganmen is only running away, Yoko and Simon realizes it might be a trap and they head back to get the Gurren. When they return, they are attacked by the Gurren!
It was all an incredibly strange ploy to steal the Gurren. A beastman, with hair similar to Kamina’s, named Jigitalis is piloting the Gurren and they start fighting. The Lagann itself is no match for the Gurren, until (by falling off a cliff) Kamina discovers Jigitalis’ ganmen which he named Usagddon (or, something like it.) This annoys the hell out of Jigitalis because a human is piloting his ganmen, and freaks the hell out of Kamina because the interior is decked out in pinups of beastgirls and other, random, kinky decorations.
Simon, as always, is somewhat overshadowed by the random greatness that is Kamina, gets tugged back into the picture when he’s forced to combine with the Usagddon (or, something like it.) However, when the Lagann combined with Usagddon, the ganmen’s arms suddenly disappeared, but Kamina quickly adapts to it by using his legs and kicks Jigitalis to oblivion and then the Lagann combines with Gurren, getting rid of Jigitalis. Just as he’s about to enter his own ganmen, Yoko stops him cold with a bullet and tells him to stay put if he wants to live. Then, Chitori, the beastgirl from before, shows up and saves Jigitalis and the two of them run away.
Kamina, befuddled by their display of cowardliness, shouts after them. At the end of the day, the Gurren is still dirty and in terrible condition and Kamina will have to wash it himself.
I’m telling, it was weird, but it was good. It makes me miss the good ol’ days when the Gurren Dan only consisted of Simon, Kamina, Yoko, Leeron, Rossiu, Gimmy and Darry. It makes me miss the days when Kamina was still alive and his over the top speeches, poses and astonishingly rash personality. It makes me miss even his glasses. It makes me miss Simon being tiny and adorable and so freaked out by everything. It makes miss Yoko, just for being Yoko.
I don’t think I’ll ever, truly ‘get over’ Gurren Lagann. It’s one of those things that’s just totally polluted my mind with its greatness, irrationality and epic-ness. When I hear that opening theme, when I hear Simon’s voice, Kamina’s voice, Yoko’s voice, when I start remembering Nia, I just want to squeeze something into little pieces and cry. Especially since it was just licensed by ADV.
Rental Magica – Episode 04 · 30 October 2007
It’s been a while since my last entry, give or take a week? I’ve been lacking the will recently to write about anything. Gundam 00 came and went, Hero Tales is really starting to disappoint me and at the end of the day, I’m glad I have Rental Magica to look forward to. It’s probably the only show right now I look forward to watching each week.
There’s just something great about Rental Magica, I’m not quite sure what it is yet, but at the end of each episode, I just feel like the happiest person on the face of the Earth. Think of it like one of those candies that’s sour and hard on the inside, but once you get past the outer shell, you taste the sweetness within.
On one hand, Rental Magica manages to scare the bloody hell out of me. Cmon, with that eerie music, the red moon, those damn bloody hand prints crawling up the hallway! And then, and then, the soul eater? “Food, food, food, food.” Demonic blobs devouring people. Even Hostel didn’t scare me that much. But, at the same time it also manages to makes me want to hug Itsuki and everyone else to death.
Astral, in some strange way, seems to be made up of a company of misfits. Itsuki, the president, has a weak heart, scares easily and faints every once in a while. And he also hides a demonic eye under that eye patch of his and suddenly becomes Lelouch in times of urgency. There’s Mikan, short, hyper and pink-haired. There’s Ichimaru, I mean Ren, who controls cats. That alone is weird enough. Kuroha’s a ghost and an apprentice. Honami feels like a tsundere, but she blushes too much and cares for Itsuki too much to be a real tsundere. She’s dressed and ready for Halloween and Christmas all year round, donning a pointed hat and cape, tossing mistletoe. And, of course, she’s in love with Itsuki.
Each episode focuses on a different member of Astral, episode four deals with Kuroha, who is apparently a ghost. That was a pretty big shocker because, well, she seemed perfectly alive to me in the other three episodes! I also love that it focuses on the individual characters. I’m a total sucker for good characters, I’m convinced that the characters make or break a series, or anything for that matter.
I love each and everyone of them to pieces! In short, Rental Magica, right now, feels cute and creepy…at the same time. The animation is also still flawless and gorgeous, which is something to take note of because episode two of Hero Tales looked terrible.
The main plot of the series didn’t even begin yet, it feels like we’re still in the prologue. The meet ‘n greet where we’re still shaking hands and repeating introductions. There’s a peculiar guy in the opening sequence, who looks to be the main antagonist and is somehow related to a dragon. But no one’s said anything about that, and I’m tempted to look it up on Wikipedia. I’m scared to death of spoilers, but at the same time I can’t help but spoil things for myself.
In any case, here’s my two second random post. I’m pretty excited about Rental Magica. It has the potential to be a truly memorable series. The characters are great, the animation is smooth and it’s really just a matter of how long it can keep it up, or how soon someone drops the ball. (Please don’t drop the ball.)
Top Ten Favorite Male Anime Characters · 21 October 2007
Inspired by Briar’s post and other post.
Alright, for those of you who know me, and have been reading my random, useless commentary, you’ll know that there is only one thing I live for: hot guys. So, am I really going to pass up an opportunity to indulge my inner fangirl by not raving about unrealistically gorgeous, 2D (some cases, 3D) males? Heck no! And of course, I won’t miss an opportunity to give this “lamentably male blogger world”, in Briar’s words, a few splotches of pink, either.
Notice I didn’t say top ten anime bishonen, because after selecting very carefully a list of ten characters I particularly enjoyed watching, or were just too damn hot for their own good, I realized the majority were not really considered ‘bishonen’. Technicalities aside, the only qualification needed to make it on to this list is to just be good looking.
This whole thing, of course, is painfully subjective and if anything, a source of personal amusement. I mean, I can’t spew out a meaningful, analytical post about the opposite gender in anime no matter what you do to me. Anyway, here’s to that overwhelming pink tsunami.
I’ve been trying to come up with this list for a while, right after Briar’s first post, Top Ten “Old” Bishonen. It’s gone through a million revisions and edits and cuts and additions and finally, finally, after reading Briar’s second post, Top Ten “New” Bishonen, I settled on these ten characters. It was a painful process, heartbreaking almost, but alas, here is the list.
(And, oh yes, I’ve also adopted Briar’s one guy per show rule, or it’ll be flooded by a list of CLAMP guys…)
Dragonaut – Episode 3 · 20 October 2007
Dragonaut just got really interesting, indecently interesting. The show has a pretty weird, pretty amazing, pretty strange concept: people riding dragons.
So, these Dragonaut guys are psuedo-military people riding dragons like gundams, but it’s really more like RahXephon or even Evangelion because they have this connection with their dragons. In fact, their dragons are actually humans, each with their transformation sequence (which reminded me of Power Rangers), that turn into these giant dragons. And, I’m under the impression the ISDA manufacture these test tube dragons, hence G-10, or Gio and his birth.
Speaking of Gio, poor Kazuki was basically totally ignored this entire episode. Ignored by his childhood friend, ignored by his childhood when he tried to kill him, ignored by his pet dragon, ignored completely by almost everyone. I feel terrible for the poor kid, the way things are going for him right now, I’m going to hypothesize he suffers a mental breakdown in the near future and goes on some rampage.
Then, there’s that romance going on between Jin and Toa. They kissed in mid air, it was the cutest thing in the world, except the part where she starts running away from him after turning into Album and hooks up Gio, whose soul purpose is to protect her. In short, everything got even more confusing when Gio popped out of his test tube and met up with Toa. Both Kazuki and Jin are separated from the possible love of their lives and no one is very happy. I’m not too pleased myself, this Gio guy is the unnecessary third wheel, butting into Jin and Toa’s romance! It was agonizing, albeit only a little, to watch Jin reach out for Toa, remember her kiss and her promise, only to end up calling her a liar as he drifts into the ocean.
And let’s not forget, half the main cast transform into dragons! Hooray! I wasn’t too crazy about the designs, the CG feels awkward, but the action was nonstop, fireballs and crazy explosions and all, some guy (back in episode two) even got eaten. Aside from the dragons, there’s also the Gillard Army. I have absolutely no idea who the heck they are. I’m assuming that they’re some random military organization with no particular affiliation to anyone. Their colors seems to be red, everything the own, pilot or wear is decked in red. That freakish, psycho lady from episode one is even named Garnet.
Last but not least the commander of the ISDA seems to have his own problems. He goes home, opens a can of beer, suffers a momentary hallucination of his daughter and goes to sleep on his couch, ignoring phone calls. Perhaps his daughter died in some incident relating to the dragons as well, and maybe that’s why he joined the Dragonauts. I think, back in episode two, he urges Jin to join the Dragonauts to avenge his father, perhaps his situation is similar.
Dragonaut has a lot of potential, it’s a refreshing concept to watch and I’m really hoping that GONZO pulls it off this time. Last Exile had such a wonderful start but somewhere near the end, it just unraveled completely. The cast is large, people are running around everywhere, but as soon as the story and action picked up, everything fell into place. The story needs to stay nice and neat, tight, with out random loose ends flailing about, because it’ll be a pain to have to tie them back together.
Oh, and the Giga Drill Breaker is so much cooler than Howling’s Star drill attack.
Dumbledore is gay!? · 20 October 2007
It’s the funniest tidbit of news I’ve heard in a while. Dear old Albus Dumbledore is a homosexual. God, what is the world coming to? Not only does Harry Potter promote witchcraft and devil worship, but homosexuality as well, the Church is going to have a fit.