Thursday, July 26, 2007

Agh mahou shoujou agh

In some terrible lapse of judgment, I decided to check out Moetan and Nanatsuiro Drops. I hereby declare that I am of sound mind and body once again (mostly).

Moetan wasn't too bad at the beginning. I can forgive the unexplained-loli-in-high-school setup, and the excessive love interest fixation (I'm starting to think this is asian-culture gender-role-shaping in action), and the sorcerer duck fellow. But in the end, the deal-breaker is the loli factor. Can't stomach it. I couldn't handle Sumomo mo momo ... for the same reason. To the people who enjoy this stuff: you're sick, the lot of you.

Thankfully, Nanatsuiro Drops is free of the loli scourge, at least in the first episode. Rather, we get gobs of moe. The heroine is cute, but I can't help but see her as an amalgam of CLAMP's Sakura prototype and Kanon's Ayu. The setup, again, is unremarkably cliché: guy gets turned into talking stuffed animal. Guy gets girl to be all mahou and go collect mahou tidbits in order to call the dragon fellow turn him back to normal. The production quality is pretty good, and I like the OP. The main thing that irritates me is how things are presented in an utterly facile manner. The comical face distortions and such are each given their own moment in time, and this over-emphasis is quite grating. Overall, I don't want to watch this. But... there is one intriguing aspect, which is that of the weapon-wielding tsundere girl. That's good enough for me... However, I just watched the OP again, without the hypnotizing music, and can confidently state that I am quite disgusted at ever being slightly interested in this series.

On the other hand, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is, in a word, brilliant. I'm all for dark, cynical humor; and neurotic girls, provided I don't have to deal with them in real life. But really, this is a vehicle for director Akiyuki Shinbo's visual flights of fancy, and random scribbles on the blackboard.

The only other new series that I've touched is Doujin Work. I'm not sure what to think of it. The animation is low-budget, and so is the rest of the production, it seems. And the subject matter has been somehow worn to death, in my mind. The episodes are short, though, so it's less of a waste of time.

Still need to watch: Potemayo.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The onslaught of summer


So, everyone and everyone's mother has probably seen this picture, but here it is once again. Whoever makes these things is pretty darned clever.

The summer cour has begun, and there will much in the coming weeks to watch, or mock, as the case may be. I find myself disconcertingly interested in far too many shows, and I still have a major backlog in regards to this season, past seasons, past years ...

Anyhow, I'll vent at length on the spring cour someday soon. Right now what concerns me is this image of tiled images. Starting at top left and skipping the not-so-interesting:

- Code Geass 24 and 25. Of course. No idea how they'll wrap things up in two episodes.

- Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. It's Shinbo. Should be aesthetically intriguing.

- Higurashi S2. Haven't seen the first season, but people are big on this franchise, so I'll get around to checking it out.

- Zero no Tsukaima S2. The first season was pretty cliché, but consistent. The tsundere moments are the only reason I watch this stuff. Must get my tsundere fix, fufufu.

- Doujin Work. A cat is okay too? Notorious enough to catch my interest, though it's Yet Another 4koma Anime.

- Moetan. I'm interested in bizarre English, not lolis, honest.

- Nanatsuiro Drops. Guy turns into sheep, with mahou shoujou miscellany. Wait, why am I curious about this series? I must be losing it.

- School Days. Uh, I realized that I'm probably not interested in this one. All aboard the emo train. Er, train wreck.

- Shigurui. Kotonoha's working on the original manga, but I have yet to read it. Unless this anime is truly EPIC, I'll skip it.

- Baccano!. Retro could be bad or good.

- Mushi-uta. Mind-control bugs? Sounds horribly cliché, but The Bloggers Who Grok Moonspeak are giving it a chance.

- Tokyo Majin S2. More supernatural / Eastern mysticism. I approve.

So far, I've only watched the first few minutes of Zero no Tsukaima. Horribly cliché dream sequence followed by big tsundere moment.


Ufufufu.