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Sampled a few more shows in the last week:
Junjou Romantica
BL anime adaptations are rare enough that it's usually a big deal when one hits, so I decided that I really ought to check this out. I watched the first episode, but it's not for me. Issue #1 is the character designs are just butt-ugly, imo. The style is a fairly typical one for yaoi manga, but it doesn't translate well to animation at all... and, truth be told, I don't much care for the style in manga, either. Too lanky and non-human looking. There's nothing *sexy* about the characters as they're drawn at *all*... and that kinda spoils the mood. Issue #2 is that I don't much care for this particular brand of yaoi power dynamic. Again, it's pretty common in yaoi to have the seme be this obnoxious bastard who the uke is helpless to resist (and doesn't *really* want to, no matter how much he protests otherwise ;-) ), but I don't find that sort of relationship "romantic" in the least. It's kinda creepy.
Himitsu -The Revelation- (3 episodes)
Heh... Another one that's hit me rather hard in the "squick" zone. I'm going to give it a few more episodes before deciding, but so far, it's not looking good. Issue #1: At it's heart, this is a C.S.I. type of crime investigation story, with a large portion of the narrative focused on the victim-of-the-week and how our heroes discover his/her dirty little secrets. I'm not a fan of this sort of show on American TV, so that aspect of the plot isn't grabbing me. Issue #2: Main character is unsympathetic on multiple levels. There's the glaring issue of his attraction to his sister, of course. (Incest is never not icky... no matter what certain shoujo writers would have you believe. ^_^) But I'm also rather turned off by his general demeanour. There's just something wimpy and off-putting about him that doesn't encourage me to want to continue watching.
Kaiba (4 episodes)
Wow. Wow wow wow. They've hit one out of the ballpark with this one. Surreal and thought-provoking and heart-wrenching all in one... it's like Ghost in the Shell as told by Dr. Seuss. In a world where most people's identities are stored in a single chip plugged into the top of the skull, switching bodies is as easy as unplugging the chip from one body and plugging it into a new one. Memories are malleable, and with a special gadget, it's possible to dig around in another person's memories at will. The hero, Kaiba, wakes up on a strange planet with no memories of his own, and only a few clues to his identity - the picture of a girl in a locket around his neck, and three circles arranged in a triangle on his stomach. Chased and fumbling for answers, he ends up aboard a spaceship (and in the body of a stuffed hippo) that takes him to various planets, and from there, we have a Kino no Tabi-sort of flow, with Kaiba meeting someone new and different in each new world, serving as an observer to these people's stories. I assume that Kaiba will have more of a long-term story-arc than "Kino", since he needs to sort out his own dilemma at *some* point. But either way, I can't wait to see where it goes. Definitely my second "Must See" series of the season.
BL anime adaptations are rare enough that it's usually a big deal when one hits, so I decided that I really ought to check this out. I watched the first episode, but it's not for me. Issue #1 is the character designs are just butt-ugly, imo. The style is a fairly typical one for yaoi manga, but it doesn't translate well to animation at all... and, truth be told, I don't much care for the style in manga, either. Too lanky and non-human looking. There's nothing *sexy* about the characters as they're drawn at *all*... and that kinda spoils the mood. Issue #2 is that I don't much care for this particular brand of yaoi power dynamic. Again, it's pretty common in yaoi to have the seme be this obnoxious bastard who the uke is helpless to resist (and doesn't *really* want to, no matter how much he protests otherwise ;-) ), but I don't find that sort of relationship "romantic" in the least. It's kinda creepy.
Himitsu -The Revelation- (3 episodes)
Heh... Another one that's hit me rather hard in the "squick" zone. I'm going to give it a few more episodes before deciding, but so far, it's not looking good. Issue #1: At it's heart, this is a C.S.I. type of crime investigation story, with a large portion of the narrative focused on the victim-of-the-week and how our heroes discover his/her dirty little secrets. I'm not a fan of this sort of show on American TV, so that aspect of the plot isn't grabbing me. Issue #2: Main character is unsympathetic on multiple levels. There's the glaring issue of his attraction to his sister, of course. (Incest is never not icky... no matter what certain shoujo writers would have you believe. ^_^) But I'm also rather turned off by his general demeanour. There's just something wimpy and off-putting about him that doesn't encourage me to want to continue watching.
Kaiba (4 episodes)
Wow. Wow wow wow. They've hit one out of the ballpark with this one. Surreal and thought-provoking and heart-wrenching all in one... it's like Ghost in the Shell as told by Dr. Seuss. In a world where most people's identities are stored in a single chip plugged into the top of the skull, switching bodies is as easy as unplugging the chip from one body and plugging it into a new one. Memories are malleable, and with a special gadget, it's possible to dig around in another person's memories at will. The hero, Kaiba, wakes up on a strange planet with no memories of his own, and only a few clues to his identity - the picture of a girl in a locket around his neck, and three circles arranged in a triangle on his stomach. Chased and fumbling for answers, he ends up aboard a spaceship (and in the body of a stuffed hippo) that takes him to various planets, and from there, we have a Kino no Tabi-sort of flow, with Kaiba meeting someone new and different in each new world, serving as an observer to these people's stories. I assume that Kaiba will have more of a long-term story-arc than "Kino", since he needs to sort out his own dilemma at *some* point. But either way, I can't wait to see where it goes. Definitely my second "Must See" series of the season.
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