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Well, I've shifted my Japan plans to do a European thing instead. It's going to involve more work for me because I'm doing this one without a tour, but my excitement levels are back up.
I'm also getting into my "Gee, my birthday is only a month away. I deserve a present. Or two. Or three." mode. I don't want to go as crazy as I did on my artbook-spree last year, but I'm definitely eyeing THIS and THIS, with perhaps a smidgen of THIS because there's something frighteningly adorable about chibi-fied Light.
There are also Light and L dolls coming out in the same quality as the Mushishi one, but two more at that price is too rich for my blood, even if they would be perfect alongside that Ryuk figure. <sigh>
LOL...as I'm typing about Death Note figures, Sam & Dean are on the TV talking about guys in prison dying of heart attacks. It's not a ghost, guys! It's Kira! :)
*Sigh.*
In other news - it was a pretty good anime meetup the other night. Had a good turnout, and I actually stayed awake for this one. The last couple before that caught me on cranky, tired days and I wasn't really in the mood for hours and hours of anime fun.
The Bleach episodes this time didn't even make me want to gouge my eyes out, so that's a tremendous improvement. :) But I still don't get what people see in this show. I'm not anti-shonen by any means. One Piece is my own true love, and I can even fathom some of Naruto's insane popularity. But Bleach just feels so hollow and paint-by-numbers to me. There's no real spark behind any of the characters. Blah. (errrr... that "hollow" thing wasn't originally intentional, but I confess to being amused at my own funny when I noticed it. ;-) )
(Speaking of One Piece, big smooches to Funimation for the licensing news!)
Finished watching the last two volumes of the anime, "Melody of Oblivion", last night.
As of the end of volume 4, I would have given this series absolutely glowing reviews. I would've been praising its quirkiness - the way it takes a fairly ordinary human savior versus evil monsters plotline and then twists things just enough to makes for this interesting, surreal, oddly seductive sort of a setting. There would have been a few negatives, mainly involving the over-the-top-ness of some of the human villains, but overall, the positives far outweighed the negatives.
And then I hit the final volume. And what had been "surreal and oddly seductive" crossed a huge line into crack-spawned and weirdly perverted. The storyline, which was a bit vague around the edges up to this point but at least kept moving steadily forward, just sort of hit its climax point and sputtered out in a smattering of bizarro imagery and random mumbo-jumbo. Some really interesting plot threads got added late in the game...and went nowhere. Fan-servicey content, which up to this point had been rather blatantly amusing, turned sour with some rather over-the-top scenes that didn't *show* anything but were still rather tasteless, imo.
I've never had the final volume sour me so much on a whole series. After the way I felt about volume 4, even a mediocre conclusion would have left me generally happy and ready to buy the series for my collection... but now I'm not so sure. *sigh*
Some bullet points on stuff I did:
- Greg Ayres presented some first-look footage from "Beck" and a full episode of "Nerima Daikon Brothers". The dub of Beck sounds fine, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of the songs, but nothing there really blew me away. On Nerima Daikon Bros., I'm glad Greg showed this. I probably would have ignored this release and missed out on some *primo* crack. Hilarious (and dirty) as hell. :)
- I actually sat through the whole Anime Music Video contest. Usually I get bored after two vids and leave. There were a couple *really* good vids in the first six shown that I really wanted to vote for, but then it didn't seem fair to cast a vote without having seen all of the competition. :)
- Chris Patton panel: Chris has some scary fangirls (& boys). *shudder* Best news for me: A new "Voices for..." CD is in the works.
- Went to a "try voice acting" workshop and actually worked up the nerve to give it a shot. I think I did a decent job. I liked that the guy running it really focused on getting a good *acting* performance out of people - letting you try several "takes" and giving specific advice after each take on what you did right and wrong.
- The video rooms were awesome. First con I've been to in a while that showed primarily fansubs of newer titles instead of relying on commercial releases. I don't keep up with fansubs so well anymore, so it was a treat to check out some titles that were new to me. Two that most struck my fancy (and I'm downloading right now ;) ) were "Pumpkin Scissors" and "Innocent Venus".
- Shopping was a bit "meh". The usual problem: The same vendors selling the same stuff at every con. I didn't get anything uber-cool, but did pick up a few new artbooks and a spiffy Haruhi Suzumiya-themed duffel bag that's a perfect size for a swag bag at future cons.
I watched the "Grave of the Fireflies" live-action drama over the weekend, and - hmmmmmm....
The beefing up of the aunt's side of the story was more effective than I expected, in some ways. Although her *actions* towards Seita and Setsuko are still reprehensible, her motivations are at least expanded in a way that made me feel a bit of sympathy for her plight.
The problem I have with this, though, is that the aunt seems to be left off the hook by the filmmakers for her actions. There's this sense at the end that "Oh, isn't this sad, but she did what she needed to do to survive, so she can't really be faulted for that." I think it cheapens the tragedy of the story to have her come out of it as some sort of "sadder but wiser" person who we never see have any real regret for her actions, and even her daughter, who calls her on her evilness, coming away seeming to realize that her mother shouldn't be blamed for what happened to Seita and Setsuko. It really kinda spoiled any good-will I had for the movie up to that point.
It kinda reminds me of the Kino's Journey incident where a girl's father is about to stab her and a passing traveller saves her. The villagers all stand around being shocked for a minute that they've just killed an innocent bystander, then start convincing themselves that it was all just a tragic accident - so terribly sad, but what could they have done, after all? With this "Grave of the Fireflies" movie being made to commemorate the anniversary of the end of the war, it feels a bit too revisionist for my liking...
Recent Anime Viewing:
Anime Goodies:
- Location: I was not staying in the convention hotel and didn't realize that most of the convention activities were in the con-hotel when I was picking alternate hotels. All the hotels seemed quite close together looking at an overview of the area, but man was that deceiving. It turned out to be quite a long hike through the area's skybridge from my hotel to the con one. Inconvenient. Once you were at the con-hotel, though, everything was relatively close together except that the Dealer's Room was over in the real convention center. (Again, a fairly long hike...but a good division of resources if they had to choose something to put over there.)
- Small minus that made a big impression on me: con badges were provided with a cheapy little rubberband thing to hang around your neck and no other fastener option. But two steps past the registration, they would gladly sell you a REAL lanyard for a mere $5. I bought one, because I like to keep my badges and a nice lanyard or clip is part of that...but it felt like they made the "built-in" option as cheapie as humanly possible to "persuade" people to buy the special lanyard. Not a big deal, but it was a negative first impression to start out with.
- Attended a special showing of the Trinity Blood "movie" that is showing in select theaters to promote the show. We actually got bussed to downtown Chicago to see it in a real movie theater. I was zonked and had already seen a couple of the episodes that make up the movie, so it wasn't terribly thrilling for me except for ooh-ing over the pretty anime on the big screen. But they had technical difficulties at the end of the film and promised all of us a free DVD to make up for the money we'd spent to see the movie. (Plus the AMC gave us free movie passes to make up for it too) so the net result worked out. :)
- Attended the preview concert for "Voices for Peace". The CD is *awesome*. Can't wait for them to do more.
- I'm not sure what I did all day Saturday, but it was a very full day somehow. I barely had time to fit in fifteen minutes to eat dinner in between going to various panels and videos. Watched part of an InuYasha movie, of all things. I *loathe* InuYasha, but I'm kinda fangirling Miroku right now. Wish I knew which episodes to check out for Miroku-goodness without having to deal with so many of the other 863-million characters in the show. These long series are a bitch in that regard. At least with One Piece, I actually *LIKE* all the other characters, so even if I do wish it was "The Sanji Show!", I can enjoy the episodes with the others just fine.
- Attended premiere of Negima dub. It's a cute show, but the hour-long wait due to technical difficulties in a crowded-past-capacity room was very un-cute. I was dog tired at that point, so it was a bit frustrating.
- Watched "Otaku no Video" for the first time in a long time. I gotta get that DVD.
- I didn't actually watch very many videos, but I liked their video layout and scheduling scheme pretty well. It showed some nice thought, I think.
- "Shounen Ai: The softer side of yaoi" turned out to be a plain old yaoi panel with the same historical information you'd get at a regular panel, just with the more NC-17 content couched in euphemisms and "...but I can't really talk about that in this panel" comments. I was disappointed. The description had me hoping for something talking a bit more about other aspects of yaoi instead of the usual routine of adult women devolving into giggling teenagers at every naughty reference.
- I barely bought anything the first two days and was feeling pretty down about it. (Especially because I dithered for an hour deciding whether to buy a Portrait of Pirates Luffy figure, only to have it be gone when I went back. ) This morning, though, I did my final rounds and scored some cool stuff. My favorite is an art portfolio of Natsuki Takaya art prints (mostly Furuba, but also a couple others). Nice sized prints that come in a cool plastic binder. Much nicer storage than the other two art portfolios I have. Also got a little Tohru figure from Pinky St. that is adorable. With those and some other things I found, it turned out to be a pretty successfuly shopping con for me. Yay. :)
- Overall, the con seemed well-organized and sane, so that's a good thing. I'd probably go back if I was feeling a con urge at the right time. There wasn't anything mind-blowing about the experience, though, so I doubt I'll be EAGER to go back without the urge (like I am with AnimeUSA).
General Fannish
It took me all season, but I'm certifiably hooked on "Supernatural" now. My only regret about last night's ep. was the promise of Dean owwies in the trailer doesn't seem to happen until next week. The bastards. ;-) Still, the lovely angsty family stuff was well worth the price of admission. That scene with John finding out about Sam's visions, and that last scene with Dean finally expressing exactly how much he needs to keep his family together. *melty goo puddle* Wish I could find a gen-centric hub for the fandom. The Wincest I'm finding everywhere is just not my thing.
Finished up "Kingdom Hearts 2" (well, technically, I'm sitting at the last save point deciding whether to try for the perfect ending...all the stuff with Riku near the end has me not wanting it to end so soon.) Overall, the game was enjoyable but not really one for the ages or anything. The individual Disney worlds had a lot less charm to them this time around, and the game was way too short. The overall plot arc, though, was very very good. Gawd, could Axel/Roxas be more hot? Playing Suikoden V right now. It's living up to expectations, but still not quite in the same league as the first two of the series. (Or I may just still be bitter that my personal favorites don't seem to have made the recurring-character cut.
Anime
Almost finished with Final Fantasy: Unlimited. This is gonna be a tricky review. It's the first title I've watched for AOD that I really have not enjoyed at all. Even "D.I.C.E." was entertaining in its own way, but FF:U has just been a slog. However, it *has* gotten better toward the end, so if I'm being objective, I can't give it an utter pan. But then again, I want to knock it down a few grades just for trading on the "Final Fantasy" name without coming anywhere near the quality of storytelling that that name should imply.
Watched the second volume of "Memory of Oblivion" last night. I can't really pin down why I like this series just now, but it's pleasantly surreal and creepy.
Doing ACen next weekend. My first con of the year, and my first time at this particular con. Looking forward to it. :)
Reading
*FINALLY* finished Memories of Ice. Man, what an ordeal - but in a good way! I feel like this book just chewed me up and spit me out. It was so involving and engrossing that I was right there with the characters...but the characters went through such horrific times that it was also very draining.
SPOILERS HO! (Heh...not that anyone's reading this who'd give a fig.)
People talk a lot about the high tragedy of Deadhouse Gates, but I have to say that, for me, the decimation of the Bridge Burners in MoI topped it by several degrees. I was utterly sobbing at several points in the last hundred pages, and actually found myself setting the book aside to give myself a bit of a breather from the sadness. I can't remember the last time a book made me *hurt* this much. And yet I loved every minute of it. I wish all the people who hopped on the fantasy-movie bandwagon after LOTR and Harry Potter would tackle something big and dirty and grown-up like this. The scale of these battles, the sheer scope of the story...I'd love to see it tackled by a serious director with WETA behind him.
Anyway, it was quite exciting to pick a new book to read after all these months. I need something a bit of a lighter next, I think, so I'm going into the next "Myth" book (Robert Asprin) in my queue. First thing I notice off the bat: NO CHAPTER QUOTES! *tsk, tsk, tsk* Where's the logic in that, I wonder. Those quotes are so much a trademark of the series...
Phew...first major AOD review is up and no one's screaming that I suck, so that's a load off.
Recent Anime Viewing: ( Kodocha, Gunparade March, Ranma 1/2 )
Recent Reading:( Robert Asprin, Carol Berg, Patricia McKillip, Chaz Brenchley )
Currently reading Finding Serenity (essays on Firefly...some interesting, some not) and The Prydain Companion, a reference guide to Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books (which are to me as Tolkien's universe is to most other fantasy readers). I'm enjoying reading about how the various Prydain elements tie back to the Mabinogion and other Celtic myths. I was especially surprised to see a note mentioning that the "Sons of Don" are also known as the "Tuatha de Danaan"...Full Metal Panic reference! Whee!
Speaking of Prydain, went searching for fan-art the other day and found some GORGEOUS renditions of the characters:( Fan Art Links. Clicky-clicky. )
I've been putting off watching too much of 2nd Raid until after I finish this rewatching of Season 1, but "WAH!" again. :) From what little I've peeked at, it seems to be starting off without a hitch.
You know, it's funny. If you'd asked me two years ago the state of my anime fandom, I would've been very lukewarm on the subject. I was stilll enjoying anime, and still going to cons and such, but I hadn't been really *into* the fandom for quite a while. Sure, I plugged it when it came up at ExIsle, and checked in with the rec.arts.anime.* groups every once in a while, but I didn't expect to ever really get to the point where I was really investing large amounts time (and money) on anime again.
And yet, somehow here I am helping moderate an anime-centric forum (Anime Jumpgate - *plug*plug*, just in case anyone ever reads this. <grin>) and starting out a reviewer for Anime On DVD (I'll be going by J.J. Matthews over there.)
It's really cool to feel like I'm actually contributing to a fandom again.
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Went to see Howl's Moving Castle again the other night. It just gives me this big smile plastered on my face for the whole movie.
I'm two volumes into the manga, Diabolo, that Katrina recommended at Jumpgate. Since there's only three volumes total, I'll wait to review the content, but GAWD are the character designs drool-worthy. And happily for me, the co-authors each have an artbook out, so I'll have to add those to my want-list.
Speaking of artbooks, I finally splurged for "Soul Driver 2000". Can't decide if it was worth it or not. On one hand, I like the Weiss anime designs MUCH better than Kyoko Tsuchiya's versions...but on the other, it's nice to have the book in my collection, completist that I am. :)
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Tried watching Battlestar Galactica again on Friday. I really *want* to like this series, but I can never sit through more than five minutes at a time. I think I've decided it's the camerawork that makes it unwatchable for me, since I never see enough at one time to really like or dislike the characters/plot.
Went shopping for Barbie clothes for my niece yesterday. I remember back in my day, they had a whole wall of Barbie clothes at the toy stores. Now, the clothes were sort of tacked on a display near one end-cap, with only about ten different outfit options. My dreams of setting her up with a deluxe wardrobe for Barbie were sadly dashed. :(
Haven't commented on anime for a little while, but I've been watching a lot. Just some brief thoughts:
Infinite Ryvius: Have seen Volumes 1 & 2 now, and it's well on its way to becoming a major favorite. There are so many important characters, yet never feels confusing or overloaded. The shifting alliances and power plays of the various groups in the midst of trying to save their own lives and figure out what's going on is fascinating. I also love the presence of the strange girl (ship's avatar?) who seems to channel the emotions and thoughts of the characters. It's very unique to have her still remain relatively hidden after a full 10 episodes. Can't wait to see what the next twists and turns will be.
Escaflowne, Vol. 3: *NOW* we're talking. I wasn't drawn in much by the first couple volumes, but these episodes really got me excited about this series. (I guess it's not surprising that it took this many volumes, considering it's a 3-ep. per volume series.) Now that the initial introductions are done with, we get the plot picking up steam and throwing a few twists and turns into the mix. Love it!
Spiral: I wasn't really impressed with this at first...it's kind of a "Case Closed" junior detective sort of series, but over the first two volumes, it really grew on me. There's much more of an arc, I think, than Case Closed has, since it's a shorter series.
Princess Tutu: This one is...odd. It would've been easy to dismiss it as just a kiddy show from the first few episodes, but this show has so much positive word of mouth that I stuck to it for the full first volume...and now I'm dying to get the next volume! (Which seems to be indefinitely delayed. :( ) It's slight and simple so far, but Duck is so charming and the story so melancholy and fairy-tale-ish that it draws you in.
Record of the Lodoss Wars (first half): Man, I'd forgotten just how good this series is. If I'd rewatched it before doing my Top 50 at ExIsle, this would've been higher on the list.
Gantz: Not as happy with the DVD version as I was with my fansubs. Not terribly fond of the U.S. voice cast, and the director's cut crosses a bit over my comfort zone in terms of good taste.
New Shows on Adult Swim:
Samurai Champloo: Love it, love it, love it. Mugen and Jin both rock heavily, and I love the art-style. In places, it looks just like some old woodcut print, but with the hiphop touches. So cool!
Paranoia Agent: After episode 1, I'm intrigued. It actually was a surprise that this had as much plot as it did. I expected it to be very schizo and all over the map, but except for the obvious mystery of what the deal is with Little Slugger, the story was pretty straightforward. Looking forward to finding out more about some of the people in the credits that haven't played a big role yet. I presume they'll all run into the kid eventually. (Y'know, speaking of the credits...all those people laughing in the opening actually kinda freaked me out a bit.)
S-Cry-ed: Again, it's only episode 1, but I quite liked it. This one doesn't have a feel of anything special...pretty standard action/adventure fare...but I liked the main character, and was involved enough in the episode to be looking forward to ep. 2.
- Got most of the items that I had a prayer of getting on my want-list...
- ...except for the Wolf's Rain CD. :( There was a surprising lack of any major CD sellers there this year. Digital Discs, a place that always has tables full of CD's at the con's I've been to were mainly selling doujinshi this time around.
- Had a weird experience of having TWO people recognize my last name this weekend. I have a last name that is not really memorable but, afaik, completely unique to my family in the U.S., so it usually evokes a lot of "Huh?" type reactions. The guy who checked me into the hotel happened to know one of my second cousins, and then the guy at Digital Discs remembered that he'd sold music cd's to me at past conventions, just based on my name. I felt like a celebrity. :)
- I came in at the very end of the ADV panel. I wish I'd been earlier to hear if they had anything to say about the horrific Gantz release schedule. Not to mention the fact that they were handing out some SERIOUS freebies to everyone who asked a question.
- Didn't really catch any anime in the video rooms that was new and exciting to me, but I'll probably rent the first volumes of "I Me My Strawberry Eggs" and "Kaleido Star" to see a bit more of them
- Shared an elevator at one point with Monica Rial and Vic Mignona. Go me. (Ok, yes, I'm a sad, sad person to get excited over such a minor thing).
- Bought a stuffed toy replica of the little goat toy from Last Exile. Although, I ask you, if you were making a replica of that toy, wouldn't you give it that "Baaaah" sound like it has in the anime? It shouldn't be too hard to rig something up. But no. Still, it's awfully cute. :)
- I recognized more cosplay costumes this time around than I have in the past. That was fun.
- Why are yaoi panels at cons so freaking juvenile? Everyone in the room was over 18 (by mandate) so you'd think folks could all act like adults, but every one I go to ends up with a bunch of childish squealing over crass sex jokes in place of real discussion.
- Except for the lack of CD's, the dealers room was quite nice: Several DVD sellers, two large doujinshi tables, lots of artbooks and manga and character goods. FMA really dominated a lot of the character goods, but there was enough variety to keep it interesting.
- There was some Christian youth group gathering in the same convention space as the con. It was quite a juxtaposition, seeing all the scantily clad cosplayers interspersed with hundreds of kids with inspirational "Jesus saves" type messages on their shirts.
Mitsuru: C - Can't...
Shinobu: Something about F'nor's dragon?
Mitsuru: That's "Canth"!
I mean, WTF? Greenwood happens to be one of the few manga I also have in Japanese, so I double-checked, and that does appear to be an accurate translation/adaptation. I'm so curious now. Were the Pern books really popular in Japan at some point, making this a reference that many readers would get? Is it some sort of inside joke? Or was Yukie Nasu just a big fan who wanted to give a shout-out to the series? Does she share my love of F'nor (my fave Pern character) or am I just lucky that his dragon's name was the most punnable?
Oh, and how cool would a Pern anime be?
All my cavalier passing of credit card details around the 'net seems to have caught up with me. :( I've never been too hung up on buying things online - I figure it's just as easy for someone to get ahold of a credit card slip or receipt from the trash as it is to hack into an online transaction. But now someone's using my card number for some UK-based internet-phone service. And, of course, I only figure this out on a Friday (and New Years Eve, to boot), and can't start any gears moving to resolve the situation until the billing people get in on Monday. Aargh. Why are people so mean? (The card stealers, not the credit card people.)
I finally finished up Book 10 of the Wheel of Time series. It took me FOREVER. I kept getting bored and going off to read manga instead. There's not much to say about Jordan that hasn't been said, but I think my biggest gripe is the pure repetitiveness of the prose. There's only so many descriptions of women fussing with their clothing or their hair as a way to hide their emotions that a person can take. And I really don't need to know the exact hair color, height, magnitude of prettiness, and extent to which s/he fits the stereotypical traits of his/her nationality/ajah for every minor character who gets a name. And yeah, I *get* that Perrin can tell what people are feeling by scent. I don't need to know how that scent changes with every other sentence, thank you. I continue to like Mat, though, and so I guess I'm stuck with this series to the bitter end.
Anime-wise, I've fallen in passionate love with Beck. I can't really describe it very well except that it's a coming-of-age story that feels much more real and gritty and urban than anything I've seen before. The art style provides characters that are all designed to actually look Japanese, except for the characters who are actually SUPPOSED to be westerners, and the story has a strong "today" sort of feel to it, with Japanese teenagers steeped in western pop culture and, especially, western music. The central storyline deals with an awkward highschool boy who starts to find his footing in life when a series of chance circumstances lead him to discover a passion for rock music that ends up with him learning guitar and playing in a soon-to-be-hot (one presumes) indy rock band. There's more to it than that, but it's a really great show. :)
Ok, so I'm watching Volume 3 of this fairly intriguing anime. I haven't been captivated by its main story or characters so far, but I'm drawn to its portrayal of mecha-weapons in a relatively modern day setting, including all the political wrangling and media ruckus that would occur if mobile-suit-like technology suddenly challenged the world's military status quo. I actually like the parts dealing with that stuff WAY better than the parts dealing with the main character, Yuushiro, and the more supernatural events he's caught up in, but he's tolerable, too.
And then there's Yuushiro's sister, who spent the previous two volumes mooning around the family home because her brother wasn't home...irritating, but ignoreable. In this volume, she actually finds out where Yuushiro might be, goes looking for him, and spends more than a third of an episode yelling "Big brother!" and wondering why he won't come to her, topping the whole thing off with this huge melodramatic scene about how important he is to her.
I was actively begging someone to shoot her by the end of the disc. I can't remember the last time I was so actively annoyed by a fictional character. I don't know if I can bring myself to watch more, since she's apparently a significant character, after all. Ugh.
( More Kino Thoughts Because I just learned about LJ-Cuts and think they rock. :) )
In other anime viewing, Jon and I are currently in the midst of several series. GreenCine can't keep 'em coming fast enough:
( Boys Over Flowers )
( Marmalade Boy )
( Get Backers )
( Blue Gender )
( Haibane Renmei )
I still want to see more Gasaraki, and the previews for DNAngel and Chrono Crusade on recent Newtype disks have caught my eye, so I'll be renting those ASAP, too. :)
So, I'm having a sleepless night and think hey, I'll cheat a little and watch an episode ahead in Wolf's Rain. I've had the whole series downloaded since shortly before the license was announced, but have been trying to let myself enjoy the show week-to-week, instead of being all spoiled and stuff. As it gets late in the series, the plot has thickened and it's been tough to hold off.
So, long story short, it's now several hours later, I've watched the last six episodes of the series, I have less than four hours left to the night, and I've succeeded only in pushing myself further away from sleep. <sigh>
Anyway, W.R. has been a fantastic series in many ways. The various character arcs have been great and each has a solid payoff (although I'm not to happy with the means to that payoff :( ). Loved the artwork, loved the music, loved the voice talent. I'm a bit lukewarm on the convoluted-ness of the world-building, but it wasn't as bad as some.
Unfortunately, all I can think right now is how depressed I am that it's over (and in such a way.) It's one of those endings that leaves me scurrying for the manga, hoping that that's not the author's original intention, but I don't hold out much hope this time. It all fits, and the series certainly was NEVER building toward a happy-happy-joy-joy ending, but still. I'll be up the rest of the night now dreaming up ways to retcon away most of the last four eps. <sigh>
Oh well...this isn't coherent, but I felt a need to vent, and then realized I couldn't without excessive spoilers, and voila: incoherent ramblings. Alors.
Been viewing a slew of anime the past week. GC came across with all five of the most recent shipments being anime, plus Jon has burned a few fansubbed shows to DVD for me. I've been scurrying to get caught up before Otakon. (And before I go away for two weeks afterwards, leaving my DVD player behind. :) ) Some quick takes:
Kino's Journey (Vol. 1): I *like* this. Very Twilight-Zoney series...with Kino in almost the Rod Serling role as an observer and commentator, but also a participant. I'm intrigued.
Escaflowne (Vol. 1): In direct contrast to Rayearth, when I first saw Escaflowne, I wasn't really impressed, but this time through, I enjoyed it quite a lot. I like that they just let the main character trail along for the ride for a while instead of making her THE GREAT SAVIOR OF THE WORLD as soon as she shows up. Gives us a chance to get to know the other characters and get invested in their lives.
BGC:2040 (Vol. 2): Eh. I was slightly intrigued by Mackie's arrival in this volume, but overall, I'm not excited. I think this is the kind of series where, if you enjoy the world-building elements (boomers, GENOM, hardsuits, etc.) it's great, but if you're mostly on board for characters, it's only so-so.
Azumanga Daioh (Vol. 1): This series is great in a group (I saw an ep. at a convention a few years ago, and it had the room howling), but watching it by myself, I kept thinking of other things I could be doing around the house instead of watching. Lightweight sitcom.
Kiddy Grade (Vol. 1): Reserving judgement. This batch of eps. isn't much to write home about (cute character designs, rather ho-hum plots, not enough character-building bits for Eclair/Lumiere *or* anyone else) but it was entertaining enough, and I've heard that the series picks up speed a few volumes in. (Which makes the three-episode per volume setup here seem particularly stupid. If the series doesn't get interesting until ep. 8, let's say, wouldn't it be better to put 4 episodes on the first two DVD's, at least, so you can ensure viewers have a reason to pick up volume 3? Blah. I can't believe the viewing public puts up with only three episodes per DVD for these longer series. :( )
Gantz (Eps. 1-6): Probably my favorite of this recent viewing batch. Psychological, supernatural thriller-y with one of those plots where you have to just trust that the creators are going to explain everything at some point and enjoy the ride.
Melody of Oblivion (Eps. 1-4): Nothing special, but entertaining and atmospheric. There are a lot of characters in the opening sequence that we haven't met yet, so I'm hopeful that the show will expand a bit once the hero of the show hits a few more milestones in his evolution.