Saturday, October 13, 2007

Fall impressions the second

I consider myself a patient person, but Myself; Yourself 01 was terribly cloying and I had to stop halfway through. Some things (like the backgrounds, and the girl with the violin) are very nice, other things (Aoi's voice, corny music, saccharine-ness) are very bad.

Also in the potboiler department is Dragonaut, which is a very strange beast. Mix one part of everything and season well with cliché. Serve lukewarm.

ef is kind of uneven. There's sections that are well done, sections that are clunky, and sections of sudden jumps to the avant-garde. There must be a certain artistic desire to kick things up a notch stylistically, but fancy stuff doesn't automatically result in a work of great artistic merit. Uneven as it is, at least they're trying. There's yet to be a much of a plot, but there's enough hints to keep me interested.

I started skipping around to the end of Myself; Yourself 01. I actually have a friend who watches anime like this, skipping through just about everything. This method may help me keep my sanity while still enjoying Nanaka's miko tsundere osananajimi moe-ness. うふふふふううう~

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fall impressions the first

First off, Kimikiss pure rouge 01. I didn't expect a PS2 renai game to make for such a well-executed show. According to ANN, Kasai Kenichi storyboarded the first episode, and it really does feel almost like Honey & Clover. The art has the same softness, and the characters go comedic in exactly the same way. But given the setting, there's a distinct naiveté, or maybe a better term is seishun. So this show promises to be sentimental, though the way the characters are being introduced hints at a happy ending. I should add that Mao's seiyuu (Haruna Ikezawa) is impressive, very impressive. Nitpicks are not-so-great CG and clichéd flashbacks.

Blue Drop 01: Yes, the animation is superb. The direction is also superb. I don't have anything to complain about; I wish I did.

Minami-ke 01: They made it cheesy, sigh. Maybe the second installment will be better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Genshiken 2 01: Wow, it's really really good.

Rental Magica 01: This was also pretty good, though a tad shounen. Shinsen loevs noets too, which I appreciate.

It appears that the shows this season are of fairly high quality. The prospect of having too much to watch has left me in despair.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Not again

Aish, another season of anime already. The people who actually animeblog regularly say there are 42 fricking new series. There's a collage of shows image, as usual, but it's too unwieldy for my format. So I'll just use hashihime's ordering, skipping what I don't have anything to say about.

Mokke: Spirits plus slice of life. Sign me right up.

Rental Magica: The title is familiar, and the character range means it's not a harem series, but I still get a bad vibe from this one. I'll probably hate it.

Minami-ke: I hold the original manga in high esteem, so I'm a bit worried about this anime adaptation. After all, I was dissatisfied with how Today in Class 5-2 was adapted. To make things worse, the studio and director produced the infamous Cabbage Love of awhile back. [I just watched the OP and it's fairly cheesy. From screens, the quality looks fine; I'll watch the raw later. I predict disappointment, fueling a renewed drive to learn more Japanese and translate volume 2 of the manga.]

Sketchbook: Yet Another 4-koma Adaptation, for crying out loud. Somehow they turn out very well.

Kaiji: Watched the first half of episode 1. Aside from the art, it's done in a conventional approach. If it stays conventional, I'll drop this and read the manga when I get a chance.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Probably too shounen, but may be interesting enough.

Myself; Yourself: Watched the beginning of the first episode. I'm a sucker for certain types of romance, but this may be too saccharine.

Dragonaut: Dragons in space. Hahaha. Ah, why not give it a shot.

Ghost Hound: Highly anticipated acid-trip genre anime, I guess. Looking forward to this one.

Moyashimon: A guy who can talk to cute microorganisms, producing stuff like alcohol and yogurt. This looks and sounds totally awesome.

You're Under Arrest: Full Throttle: Repeat after me: furu surottoru.
I watched the OP and the first bit. I have to say, it seems sluggish. Not really in the mood for a long series; besides, I still have to watch the original.

Shana Second: I have yet to watch the first season beyond the first episode or so, but I am glad that my tsundere supply will not run dry anytime soon.

CLANNAD: Every AnimeSuki thread about KyoAni's Key adaptations would invariably turn into a "I hope they're doing CLANNAD next!" thread. And here we are. I watched ep 1 and I think I'm sold on this series. It probably has something to do Kyou and Tomoyo.

Genshiken 2: No real need to say more about this.

Gundam 00: From the previews, this seems like a hybrid of UC designs and AC over-the-top symbolism/characters. (Only recently did I notice just how gaudy the Gundam Wing designs are, compared to the stoic UC stuff.) Looks like fun.

ef: Yet another eroge adaptation. The preview is rather intriguing. Faces are animated in a way that brings to mind visual novel transitions. Music should be good. Looks to be the sola of this season, albeit with a potentially better story (cough).

Shion no Ou: Chess? Yes. Or rather, shougi.

Hidamari Sketch OVA: Woot.

Nasu OVA: Woot. More bicycles and eggplants. Reminds me to check up on Iou Kuroda's current work.

Counting up... we're approaching 20 shows?! Not a sustainable schedule. The blurbs at Random Curiosity have me considering a few more too: Blue Drop (bleh yuri, but superb animation?) and Kimikiss (Kasai Kenichi (Honey & Clover) directing).

20 is way too much, so let's take a step back. If I had to pick a handful at this point, I'd say Mokke, Ghost Hound, Moyashimon, CLANNAD, Genshiken 2, and Gundam 00. That seems manageable, and is a quantity keeping with historical trends. Now to finish watching stuff from Spring and Summer...