Pokemon - Mew and the Wave Guiding Hero

I choose you... Charizard! Don't laugh out there, Pokemon isn't bad show (unlike that Digimon crap...). I suddenly got urge to watch a Pokemon movie and well, it was quite exciting. I have played those gameboy games from the beginning and probably at least twice through each one so seeing many those cute creatures from the old ones surely brought memories.




This movie had best ratings in the AniDB among the series and I decided to start with it. I have never been fan of Pikachu since Bulbasaur and Charmander for example are more likeable, but I don't really hate it(?) or anything like that. Stories haven't been exactly the strongest part here and I hate writing summaries anyway so I skip that part completely. Now the characters, along with Pikachu Ash seems to be bit too energetic for me and because of that I like side characters more. Brock is always hilarious when he try to charm every woman in sight and usually without any luck, poor guy. =) And of course the lovely Team Rocket. They fail always too, but their determination is admirable. Possibly the funniest characters in the show. As I have watched only earlier episodes from anime and played games after that I don't know much about the others.



Overall great movie, I think I should watch more Pokemon now. =) Btw, the file was English dub and it was quite good actually, didn't miss Japanese voices at all. Lastly, I'm not sure if you have seen this already, but I have to link to this awesome video anyway.

Rating: 8,5

Utawarerumono 21 - What?

Just when I thought this could be good one they add stupid mecha and ruin almost everything. Not only mecha sucks as usual, but it's also feels so out of place that things won't fit together at all. Pikemen, archers and angels against robots, right. Not really anything else to say, why Japanese have a obsession to add robots to the places they don't belong?

Utawarerumono 8

Usually I try to avoid all h-game adaptions and doggirls aren't really my thing so first impression was poor and I ended up dropping this after first episode. Due to this review I decided to give it another chance and while it's not anything too amazing it's not bad either.

One of main reasons why I find action shows boring is lack of larger concept, one super hero that save the world alone and keeps getting better all the time. I liked a lot the fact that Hakuoro makes plans how defeat the enemy, but act like a leader without playing main role in the battlefield. But why exactly almost everyone have animal ears? Yeah, it's fantasy, but still. When one or two characters are like that I don't care, here it's so overdone that I just try my best to ignore those.

While this looks like pretty serious show there are some occasions when it tries to be funny and fail miserably. That's supposed to be comedy? But not to care about that, the plot is nicely done. Rebellion isn't common theme in anime and I find it fairly interesting. I wonder what direction they go now, more wars against the other countries?

However, main reason why I have watched this much begin with lies elsewhere. Both OP and ED are excellent songs and to be honest those were only reason to keep going in the beginning. All in all, I'm not excited or anything like that, but now that I have seen 8 episodes I guess I should watch the rest too.

Honey & Clover II 8

Spoilers will follow so don't read if you haven't seen the episode.

Have you ever experienced sudden burst of emotions from previous shows in anime because of one little thing that triggered it? I was just going to post how second season of Honey&clover has been emotionally disappointing only to be proved how wrong I was.

I remembered some very painful memories from certain heart breaker anime when watching this episode. I'm sure sound of ambulance will tell everything necessary so I won't mention name of it. The title was already sign as something not so expected would happen, but it didn't really make it less effective. One thing on other hand bothered me more than anything else. Why the hell they showed so much comedy there? For god sake, you revealed probably the most shocking event yet in terms of drama and regardless of that other characters just continue their life happily. Yes, this series knows how to show positive things and do it well, but what I saw now was possibly the worst timed comedy relief ever. Without that this could have been one of best tearjerker episodes in anime. Argh, so frustrating.

As for Hagu, I didn't know about her suicidal intentions at all. Sure, there were signs of unhappiness, but suicidal thoughts were far beyond me. Because of that everything felt more dramatic and really deserved better presentation than this. But things won't change no matter how much I rant so that's about it. Very sad episode and if the end has similar ones I really hope they let the drama be drama and don't water it down.

HAHAHA indeed

You know the generally accepted truth that all guys who watch shoujo are gays? Well, apparently tommy here decided to quote that and used proper grammar too. I'm deeply disappointed that I haven't got any 'r u gay?' comments. It would make posting shoujo twice as enjoyable when I could read so amusing feedback. You would think that few Princess Princess posts and numerous raves about girly shows would have generated at least one that kind of comment, but no. I guess I can't get everything.

Binbou Shimai Monogatari 6

Yeah Ginko, you are right. Answer to your question would be right now. I don't know if it's just me, but when rich people act like poor and try to find cheap food it's not funny, far from that. And seriously, they bought computer and other stuff just to spy neighbour? When happy happy slice of life show like this manage to cause such a strong dislike it's not really good thing. After this one still 4 episodes left...

Aria The Natural 13 - Athena is your ally

I have noticed one thing when watching this hypnotic show, less you watch it better the enjoyment is. So I wonder if I should follow Aria slowly on purpose and keep at least week or two long break between episodes. It's not like I have any shortage of anime right now so it shouldn't be problem to find something else to watch in the meantime. Though it's hard to follow that rule since Aria is so awesome. Speaking of rules... This episode gave lot of screentime to Alice. Apparently she has a habit to be bit childish sometimes, not that there is anything wrong with that. =) Her goal is to go home and only use shadows without touching the ground where the sun shine. Athena try to help her, but she is determined to do it without help from outsiders.

I think I understand now why for example certain person is Athena fan. =) Her singing voice is stunnishing, so soothing that it's crime not to hear it more often. Though Akira, Alicia and Athena are all quite amazing characters. They show their kindness bit different way, but I think they all genuinely care about their undines. My personal favourite is most likely Alicia. Anyway, I should probably stop for now before I start praising every single thing once again. =)

Katri, Girl of the Meadows 10

It's kind of funny how my attitude towards this series stay optimistic, normally it's "Everything sucks unless proven otherwise". By each episode I expect that something good happen and when I think few hours later what I saw it's only empty feeling without any enjoyment that really good anime gives.

While Katri's life isn't boring to watch by any means I still would like to see more variation, the farm where she lives doesn't really offer that interesting content. I know that normal life then wasn't anything like it's nowadays, but they should at least increase the screentime for side characters. Or if the focus stay on Katri flesh out relationships more. I hoped that they would have used her mother bit more in the story by now, but after the beginning she almost just disappeared without a trace. This is 49 episodes long series so hopefully she will get bigger part later.

There is also Martti who wants to be spend time with Katri and have helped her a lot with cows too when needed. The preview showed few scenes where he argued with the other boy, I assume it's something to do with Katri's work since he criticized Martti not being capable of doing the job. I wonder which direction they choose, Mohammad mentioned before about upcoming political aspect. I think it would nice addition to the show, it feels right now that Katri alone isn't likeable enough to carry the whole show. There isn't that much angst either...

Nevertheless, the subject here is probably reason why I still watch this. You hardly ever see any other shows where are things related to Finland's past, let alone Finnish girl as a main character. It's just joy to hear Sibelius's music in anime and it also fits with the mood nicely. Lot of chances to become great show.

Strawberry Panic 19

Strawberry Panic has been so mixed experience that I'm not sure if all episodes are even from same show. About half of total episodes have been average cheesy yuri that's forgettable entertainment and the other half varied probably more than any other anime from spring season. Few episodes have been hilariously bad and some so bad that it's not even funny. Then also few where drama is very good and I really care what happens to characters. What makes it even more weird that there is no regularity. If one episode was good or bad next one could be everything between them and that's reason why I can't call SPanic good yet.

This time it was good drama. It seems that almost all worthwhile drama gather around Shizuma. The plot clearly try to keep it that way, but even if other characters have apparently sad scenes the effect is close to nothing. I really hope that the end gives to Shizuma enough character development. If anyone deserve it then it's her.

Fushigi Hoshi no Futago Hime Gyu 19

Awesome. This is exactly what mahou shoujo should be. More than enough hilarious comedy, lot of cute stuff and short sequence at end of the episode where magical girls kicks ass with their spells. =) Loved particularly the scene where Fine and Rein met their parents after a long break, way too awesome. And the voice acting is great too, Elizabert has very unique voice and both main characters really shine as well. More episodes like this and Futago hime will fantastic show.

Aria fanboyism part VI (wallpapers)

I haven't watched much Aria episodes lately and that have left big gap into my fanboy section. I mean, it's already 3 posts without a mention about undines and even the last one included offtopic just half of the post. Such a disgrace so I had to fix the situation somehow, by posting these wallpapers. You may know that I use word 'hot' rarely (if ever) when talking about anime characters, but this time I have no other choice. I think Animesuki forum is source for these, simply beautiful women. Athena, Alicia and Akira:



Imageshack link since blogger don't want to show full size of the picture in separate window.

And second one maybe not with as beautiful girls, but with cute at least.


Imageshack link.

Top 4 mecha shows

(I have always wanted to post Megazord here at least once)

Why only 4? Because I haven't seen more good ones so I'm still waiting that fifth one. Anyway, when I think about reasons why I avoid this genre few things come to mind. I also looked around why others don't like it, Hung for example complain about CG. For me that's not really the issue here. More than that, my dislike begins from the foundation of whole thing. Firstly, they are utterly boring regardless of their "coolness" factor. Maybe I have lost my inner boy and just want to be magical girl now, but I haven't found the exciting part yet. And secondly, it's still action. Always endless wars, I'm only interested in about real wars like WWII, not some fantasy where teenagers are best pilots in the whole world. But that's probably enough about the genre itself, following list is my top 4:


1. Kannazuki no Miko



Yeah, you read right. Though I have to say that mecha were the weakest part here, but rest of the anime was awesome and (unfortunately) they were there so that makes KnM awesome mecha anime. =)

2. Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid


(It was hard to find anything without Chidori so just Tessa this time)

Seriously speaking though, I think TSR has best mecha battles that I have seen. Not sure if I should thank KyoAni, creator of the show or someone else, but it was fairly interesting. Short length also helped as 13 episodes didn't drag it too long, overall great entertainment. Scaled down with other shows this is still at the level of good shoujo that I watch 1-3 per season so these kind of things will never appeal to me properly.

3. Voices of a Distant Star



Quite good OVA. It has been some time from last viewing so can't really say that much. The relationship between main characters was well done and setting somewhat unusual.

4. Macross Zero



This is OVA too. Apparently original Macross was popular in the past, but I haven't seen it so hard to compare those two. As a individual series MZ felt decent, the beginning was good, but last few episodes were boring. Just watched those sake of finishing the OVA.

The rest

I have seen some raves about Eureka Seven and that series may be one of last stops before putting whole mecha genre on permanent hiatus. When I'm bored enough I may check it out (read: months before anything really happens).