Recent Anime Viewing

[niko]

We had an anime meetup this past weekend, and there's a new guy who seems like he'll become our first new regular attendee in a while.  He seems to be pretty hardcore, and has been brining some excellent shows that I haven't seen yet, which is all *kinds* of love. :)

Recent anime viewing, from the meetups and a few of my own rentals:

- Mushishi Vol. 1 - I've watched the first episode of this series about four times, but never got around to watching more, despite buying the DVD's.  I think my enjoyment was a little tainted by having read the first volume of manga already.  With a direct manga-to-anime port like this, that's usually an issue for me.  I do love the series concept, though.  It's exactly my sort of thing, with these small, human-nature sort of stories... and the imagery is so *beautiful*.  *happy sigh*

- Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol. 1 - Straight-up adventure/caper series with a very western approach to the storytelling.  I was pretty impressed with the animation in this, especially during the bank-heist flashback.  Also fangirling a bit over Katana and Bishop ;) .  Not expecting the series to get particularly deep, but the energy and punch of it definitely make it a worthwhile series to stick with.  Unlike, say...

- L/R (Licensed by Royalty) - I wanted to like this spy series, but it never really developed any momentum to keep you interested...  Just this meandering string of lukewarm intrigue.  My rental disk had a scratch that crashed the player halfway through the final episode, and I think it's very telling that, gotten that far into the series, I had absolutely no frustration about not getting to see the final climax.  Just ho-hum.

- School Rumble Vol. 1-2 - Now *this* is made of pure, undiluted awesome.  Anime Crack of the best kind.  Characters this stupid should be irritating to watch, but their earnestness and goofiness are just too endearing for words, and bizarre situations that should seem over-the-top and freaky are completely buyable because it all just *fits*.  It kinda reminds me of Fruits Basket with all the angsty-drama taken out, but that may just be because both heroines are extreme airheads.  Either way, it's hilarious stuff.

- Excel Saga  Vol. 1-2 - I'm sure this is heretical, but Excel Saga has not aged well at *all*, imo.  I remember finding the first few episodes screamingly funny, but now that I've finally started to watch the whole thing, it's a real chore to slog through.  I know it gets bonus points for being one of the earliest experiments in pure crack spoofiness, but it's been done so much better since then that the "comedy" in this barely registers.  And if you don't find it funny, there's really not much point to watching at all.

- GITS: Innocence & GITS: Solid State Society - I really, really, *really* love Batou and Togusa.  These were both pretty sweet in that regard.  Innocence is a beautiful film... wish I'd had a chance to see it on the big screen.  The visuals are lovely, and there's this wonderful poignancy that makes the usual GITS socio/psycho-babble less mind-numbing.   Enjoyed Solid State Society more than 2nd Gig and less than 1st Gig.

- Sorcerer Hunters 1-2 - This is another series I remember liking the first few episodes, but that has clearly not aged well.  Old-school comedy/adventure that was probably borrowing heavily from Slayers at the time it was made.  It's enjoyable enough to have running in the background while doing other things, but it's a bit too episodic and un-funny to site down and actually *watch* it.

- Ayashi no Ceres 3-5 - Lord, save me from brooding heroes who magically get the girl because they're so deep and brooding and mysterious and brooding.  I suppose if I were 13 years old, I might find the Aya/Tooya drama dreadfully romantic, but I've found that the series is only tolerable if I fast forward through 90% of that gunk.  Once that shippy stuff is toned down and the emphasis on the rest of the cast is more balanced, this becomes a fairly decent series.