Feelings before start of new season

Bunch of different promos are available now so little summary what i think:

Bakegyamon: New version of pokemon?

Kiba: Looks like another generic show. I probably watch first episode but i doubt i like it.

Strawberry panic: If authors don't add too much fanservice maybe it's good.

School Rumble 2: Hard to say, could be funny.

Aria the natural: Yay! I already like new song so much and looks exactly same as first season. Gorgeous.

.hack//roots: Character design looks great, hopefully good.

Glass no kantai: Hmm, scifi. I give it a chance.

High school girls: Definitely don't watch. I already got enough panty shots for whole life during that 9 minutes long clip.

Soul link: Can't say i am excited. Once again first episode tell is it crap or just boring.

Now this damn flu could also go away, doesn't exactly make general feeling great.

REC

"It ended already?" That was my thoughts after i watched last episode. It was like someone would cut last 20 minutes from movie and thinking that nobody didn't want to see those anyway.

REC had strong start since our couple ended up living together and kissing during first episode. Normally that take almost whole series. Way how Aka and Fumihiko reacted to different situations was also realistic and refreshing, especially Fumihiko who was far away from usual male lead.

But problem is, they didn't have enough screentime to develop proper relationship. 9x12min is way too little as manga is 5 volumes long and still continuing(?).

I have seen that not everyone like opening song, but i think it's great and fit with the mood of the series. Overall, REC is great short series, but with more episodes it would have been even better.

Rating: 8

Lemon Angel Project

Last episode was exactly what i expected, fortunately, concert episode that wrapped up the story and finally fully used potential of music.

I have mixed feelings about Lemon angel project. Comedy and chemistry between characters were enjoyable as it's shoujo-ish. Not big suprise there. On other hand, drama left me cold. I didn't feel much emotions, maybe little but not enough to call it drama.

As you would expect after that how i enjoyed the series varied a lot sometimes, three episodes stood up from other ones. Those were 6, 12 and 13 as they concentrated to music. And that's part where LAP really shine. At first music wasn't that great, but more i listened it more i liked it. Voice acting was pretty much same thing, it took some time to get used to the sound and perhaps VAs skills got better too. In the end those two and comedy were reasons why i enjoyed this so much.

Rating: 8-

Shopping course

Checked out bookstore today, it has been some time since last adventure. And everytime i go to there my wallet is almost empty after coming out. This time i used 69€. List what i bought:

- Oh my goddess 22. More Belldandy, you can't get enough of her. (that sounded pervert didn't it?)

- Fruits basket 2. Cute shoujo series.

- Nana 1. Shoujo from Ai Yazawa, hopefully good.

- Someday's dreamers 1. Girl who have dream to fulfill wishes with magic.

- Death note 3. Psycho trying to clean the world from criminals. Pure evilness in form of normal student.

- Anne Freaks 1. Another psycho, this time killing people with own hands.


And i guess i should write Shakugan no Shana review since i watched last episode yesterday. But there is already at least 58 posts written around blogs so i just do super mini version.

+Art
+Animation
+Music
+KOTOKO
+ All characters expect...

- Marjorie "Let's show boobs" Doe
- Predictable and little boring story

Rating: 8+

Rescue Wings 7

Some time ago when i watched first episode it was boring and didn't bother to watch more. After post on Riuva and some comments too i decided to give it another chance. And well, general impression didn't change that much. I think main problem is randomness of characters i should feel sorry or sad. This may sound cold and little weird too coming from drama lover. But i care at least ten times more when character i know have sad moments if comparing to some random victim of earthquake i have known 5 minutes.

Rescue wings isn't complete failure, will watch rest of series too. But lack of emotions is something that drama anime can't fix no matter how original it is or done properly otherwise. At the moment this strongly belong to category 'ok' and probably stay there too.

Azumanga Daioh 3

I had plans to watch Azumanga long time ago already, but some reason i always ended up watching other animes. So was it worth all that waiting? Hard to say.

All characters have their own way to do things and others tend to disagree. Show is collection of short clips, same way as manga is. But somehow it doesn't work with marathon style, one episode once in a while and we have great series what to watch between longer sessions. That way i have finished Azumanga maybe...just right before next christmas.

Windy Tales 9

It's shame that Windy tales has got so little attention. This isn't mainstream series since art different than usually, no fanservice (well, there is leg shots like in Zettai shounen) and no action. Just fascinating episodic stories about wind and joys of flying. Some romance undertones occasionally too.

If you try to find something that doesn't just collect all cliches from anime and add nice appearance to attract viewers you should watch this.

Winter 2005/2006

New season begins soon so here is summary what happened and what not at winter season.

I had hunch that this season wouldn't be too great. REC was only one i looked forward and that too turned out to be just decent comedy. What i watched quality of comedy varied from decent to great. Binchou-tan offered pity fueled funny moments, Kashimashi through gender roles in modern society and Lemon angel project general craziness. But still didn't have that ultimate comedy experience like previous seasons had, Aria (Fall), Pani poni dash (Summer) or H&C (Spring).

There were two long waited action shows, Fate/stay night and Ergo proxy. As expected i didn't like neither, harem shows adapted from h-game is one thing i avoid if possible and dark scifi isn't my favourite. Shana on other hand, while middle of the series had some boring moments picked up in later half showing great character development.

Drama genre was underplayed, but Hantsuki came out of nowhere. I saw trailer just few days before airing. I was sold by just watching first episode, it turned out to be best series of the season. Noein maintained it's story focused pace and stayed if not most awesome series, but at least with little different point of view from mainstream.

OVA category hadn't that much traffic. King of Fighters was decent and very short action oriented show. Wings of rean only has one episode aired at the moment, but seem to be fast paced action as well.

Music, season without KOTOKO's songs isn't season. Although Being isn't her greatest works it's still KOTOKO. Also one series based on pop idols which's song Angel addict literally addicted me to watch LAP. Overall almost every show i watched had great music, can't complain that aspect.

Ergo Proxy 4

No matter how hard i try for me characters are just empty vessels that were created sake of animation and story feels too distant. Not really point to watch more after that.

Ergo proxy isn't bad enough to bash, i just don't belong to the target audience of this show since i didn't like Ghost in the shell either.

Search of cuteness

I have thinked some time now how to make this blog more unique and finally with my poor imagination came up one idea. Anime is full of cute animals who are pets of main characters or sometimes act important roles in the story. So once in a while when i find interesting ones i make reviews with pictures and profile. You see first one most likely when spring madness begin within few weeks.

Dai Mahou Touge 1-2

Now i have seen everything. Mahou shoujo who use vegetables as weapons and know wrestling moves. Scene where potato (no, not that dog) peels itself and other vegetables cry while it jump to kettle was hillarious.

But i'm not sure how long this stay fun. They seem to use same jokes a lot. I have seen better comedies, but at least still it's somewhat funny.

Lemon Angel Project 11

Only 2 episodes left. Or more like still. While characters are decent and music kicks ass i'm not impressed with story. It feels so predictable and pace could be faster. I actually enjoyed more previous filler episode than this.

I put my hope into possible final concert episode, those are usually best ones in any music series.

Feedback post

Okay, it's soon 2 months since i started blogging. And i have tried many different styles to do posts. I think i finally found good compromise between suppose-to-be-funny and strict information that keep blogging hobby instead of boring job.

But what you readers think? In general, is font good. I use arial at the moment for posts. Screenshots, how that mpc's feature works in practise. Is Poteto cute enough in the banner? And if you have anything good or bad about this blog in mind please comment. I can't promise i fill all wishes, but i try.

Mini Goodness

Just watched again some episodes of our dear goddesses adventures. I already forgot how hillarious Bell, Urd and Skuld are. And some rat, he isn't that important. Anyway, it's amazing how authors stretched this long series and still made it enjoyable. Now, i go back to watching how Skuld build diet machines and Bell makes dinner.

Katri, Girl of the Meadows 6

Katri arrives to the Räikkölä's farm and meets people who works there. Her dog Aapeli doesn't please master at first sight, but once again proves that little dog can be herd too.

This episode felt somewhat sad even though there wasn't particularly sad moments. I think part of charm you get from Katri is related to knowing and being interested in lifestyle people had in the countryside. It's also refreshing to see series where main character is little girl without loli attributes or overly cute character design.

Also, "learn Finnish traditions part 1"(picture taken from the homepage of the Ushi-ai): Kesäkeitto
Never eat this! I tasted it once in elementary school and it was probably worst thing you can find.

Haibane Renmei 1

Girl fall from the sky and wakes up in the village where everyone has small wings and halo above their head.

First episode was kind of mystery, it didn't uncover much story. But everything i saw was definitely interesting. They probably show later more information why Rakka reborned. List of VAs looks great, particularly Rakka's. Same one as Alice has in Aria. Overall i can't think of anything bad about Haibane right now, looking forward to see more.

On Your Mark

Wow. This must have been best 6 minutes i have seen in anime. Short music video and no dialog. Still it has more story, character development and emotions than some full length movies, song is great too. Once again Ghibli did it.

Rating: 9

Top 5 anime songs

Music in anime have always been important part for me when judging series. So important that without awesome op or ed it's fairly impossible to get better rating than 9. Sometimes it's matter of songs will i watch some show at all, sometimes it raises above average anime to the top lists. So here is list what i enjoyed most:

1) Myself - Changin' My Life (Full moon wo sagashite) With characters heart of the Full moon was music. It wasn't easy to choose only one since Eternal snow and New future could fit to this position as well.

2) Agony - KOTOKO (Kannazuki no miko) KOTOKO's stunnishing songs were vital for Kannazuki, it felt like story still continued during ed.

3) Re-sublimity - KOTOKO (Kannazuki no miko) Another song from same singer. I have no idea how she do it, but after this anime i was and still am totally KOTOKO fanboy.

4) Precious memories - Minami Kuribayashi (Kimi ga nozomu eien) What can i say, perfect song.

5) Tori no uta - Lia (Air) Perfectly captured Air's mood. I haven't listened Lia's other production.

Ergo Proxy 2

Ergo proxy got lot of hype mainly because of animation and what i have seen so far isn't that amazing. Story seems to take some time before fully starting. But hopefully it will get better soon.

Animation is good of course, but i wouldn't say same about all robot stuff. Scifi isn't exactly my thing and evil conspiracy doesn't help situation. Anyway, it's still too early to say this isn't good enough to watch, after next few episodes i probably know more.

Savior in form of MPC

Lately i have been rather lazy to make new posts. While reading Jason's forum i noticed that there were posts about Media Player Classic's new feature which takes automatically screenshots and create one big image. After seeing that kind of thing i lost all motivation i still had to take them one by one. So now on i use only that. Hmm, i wonder if there is program that generate summary too...

Fanboy moments

While eagerly waiting new season of Aria i found some dvd extras where crew of the show travelled to the Venice. I have to say, they chose perfect location to adapt anime series. I wish i could travel to the city itself later in my life. If nothing else for, but at least to see with own eyes gondolas, beautiful buildings and scenery. Some screenshots from extras:

The King of Fighters: Another Day 4

Final episode of KoF. This was meant to be promo for upcoming game so story aspect is kind of unrelevant when judging how good it was. Action was very good and four short episodes focused to that, good ed left great impression fitting to general atmosphere of anime.

If you want to see action series that only shows most important part, action, watch this.

Rating: 7,5

Shakugan no Shana 21 lost chance

Wilhelmina, that's your chance to prove you are good character and make this show much better. Kill him before it's too late!








Now this is result what happened when Shana let him live.

Pretty good episode though predictable.

Shinigami no Ballad 1

I can't remember last time i cared so little when character died. Didn't get any type of feelings. I don't know how i should treat this. It's too peaceful for drama, too sad for comedy, character design and music are way too generic for slice of life. Not my type of series anyway so i doubt i watch more.