Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Been there, done that



This is something I have expected for a while, my taste in anime keeps getting narrower all the time and force to depend on 'classics' to find good shows. There is no way that combination works in long term and it's already too obvious.

Maybe I start with current season so it's out of way. After all that hype Nodame Cantabile's first episode was disappointing, male lead is far from likeable and music isn't anything to rave about. I watch it for now at least, but nevertheless Nodame is painful example that my flawed theory where every josei series created is masterpiece doesn't work...

The other one is Hidamari Sketch. Funny slice of life anime with cute girls, those SD faces look weird though. But still, that's only two series.

When I said in the beginning it starting to get hard finding good anime I meant it. Sure, there are mediocre shows to watch and forget without thoughts, but the stuff that blow up your mind with sheer awesomeness? Only very few. Out of current ones Fruits Basket comes to mind, hopefully those 9 episodes left end it the way Tohru and her loveable harem deserve.

Few choices to this problem are of course to watch old favourites or get a new hobby. First one works only limited time, rewatch value isn't always high enough. As for the second, all I can say it's under progress. Though on other hand maybe I just need (another) break.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Nana 32



Whoa, that was so indescribably awesome I don't know powerful enough words to explain everything, but I will try my best.


I was literally laughing with teary eyes when there were some excellent comedy scenes after heavy drama, it's kind of funny state to be. You are forced to think sad things and at same time physically only thing you can do is laugh. Even if those are opposite emotions it's still possible to feel both. Btw Reira, I'm sure your fans love you no matter what kind of songs you make. At least I do. =)

The way plot goes now is almost too good. I hope for my own good that it doesn't go much further because then Nana starts to effect my real life too. Anime can be scary sometimes, still 18 episodes left...

Mahou Shoujotai - Little different mahou shoujo, but still good



Mahou Shoujotai is one of those unlucky shows that I watched with several pauses. Fansubbing wasn't fast begin with and somewhere along the way I simple forgot the whole anime. Then when I at last remembered it after few episodes I decided to wait dvd encodes...

It goes without saying that I already was somewhat spoiled and obviously the enjoyment of story suffered. That in mind I still enjoyed Alice's adventure.

Mahou shoujo as a genre is quite beloved to me and of course this sounded promising. Even though characters are great I have to say Alice's overly optimistic attitude was little irritating at times. I usually like those kind of characters, but in this case she was too bright for her own good. I have hard time believing that anyone can keep hope so high at all times.

As far as technical aspects go I can't complain, Studio 4C has rather unique art and it shows here too with good character designs. Plus in music there is also lovely KOTOKO. =)

It may be because of reasons I explained in the beginning, but Mahou Shoujotai lacked impact and as much as I wished the story never went beyond very good without that.

Rating: 8,5