As the cold dreariness of winter approaches, nothing warms me up like a little whine and cheese. Strong melodrama and romantic angst have helped make up for the lack of good shounen recently, and I’ve even made my first forays into live-action dorama. Naturally, Suzuka retains the top spot, but wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the Suzuka cast cosplayed as each other, similar to what happened in Sousei no Aquarion episode 18? In fact, shouldn’t this be a standard plot device, just like onsen and class trip episodes? It just feels right!
Top Five This Month:
- Suzuka: Content is king, even when content is ugly. This series is so much fun to watch and discuss that it was an easy pick for the number 1 spot. I enjoyed seeing the supporting characters get fleshed out, but they are seriously cutting into Suzuka’s screen time!
- Hana Yori Dango (Live Action): I have to admit the story can be predictable at times, but I really love how well the actors play their parts. The cheesiness of the series is quite refined, from the lovably dumb Tsukasa to those 3 absurdly bitchy girls. I also snicker every time Tsukushi talks about how she can make it because she’s a
Ginga Densetsu Weedstrong weed. Thumbs up for the constant F4 fanservice and Harry Potter pimpage as well. - Rozen Maiden Träumend: Even more Suisei Seki screen time than I could have imagined! The character interaction is as strong as ever, and the mysterious story continues to tantalize.
- Mai Otome: Enough fanservice already, let’s start writing characters off the show! I still hate the battle outfits, but I’m warming up to bratty little Mashiro. I am very worried, however, that fat-cat-Mikoto will somehow transform into burnt-cookie-head-Mikoto and that Mai will return… Please don’t let this happen!!!
- Bleach: I can’t wait until Byakuya reveals that he’s actually left-handed, only to find that Ichigo is left-handed as well. Oh noooooooesssss, Princess-Bride-Pwnage
orz!
Rising:
- Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s: They’ve upped the ante by adding a mysterious masked male. Amy refusing to give Chrono any juice was the WTFLOL moment of the month.
Falling:
- Shakugan no Shana: I want to like this series so bad, but so far I’ve found it boring and disjointed. Even though the character designs look great, it’s hard to root for Shana or Yuuji. To make matters worse, the fights have been pretty crappy. I do kinda like Marjorie and Marco, however, and I’m holding out hope that the story will get better soon. I dunno, maybe this series needs more flashbacks. Get the Naruto crew from the Haku-arc in here, ASAP!
Still Showing Horrible Fillers:
- Naruto: Kungfucius informs me that no, it hasn’t gotten any better. Maybe it’s time to marathon through those early episodes again…
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve seldomly dumbed a show which I continued to watch after the first episode but I’ve stopped watching Shakugan no Shana after the 4th episode. Actually I only watched the 4th because of the castration scene I had read about. As you say, it’s just plain boring. The fights are cheesy, repetive and unoriginal. If I want nice graphical effects I rather watch Noein now and Pani Poni Dash for my “kawaii” needs.
I dropped Hana Yori Dango a while ago (too much cheese for my liking), but I still think it’s funny how I thought the music sounded like something from Harry Potter… and then they started with the HP references. >_
Wasn’t the music at the beginning of HyD ep 1 stolen verbatim from the Harry Potter soundtrack?
Love the cheese-factor of HYDD, right down to the HP ‘homage’. Of course, there’s the fact that MatsuJun’s playing Tsukasa. Hee. But I say, more of Tsubaki-sama please.
In addition to my usual One Piece and Glass Mask, I think I’m more partial to Black Cat and Noein for this season. I would’ve included Akagi but it’s a bit wordy for my very very poor Japanese skills. I need the subs to enlighten me with the mahjongg explanation.
Episode 8 of Shana was AMAZING, great fight, great storyline.
And you havent’ seen ANYTHING in Nanoha A’s yet…
I have to agree with most of your top 5, though I’m rather surprise that Suzuka makes it there. The graphics are nothing to crow about, and if there are really 26 episodes, they would be probably moving too fast for the last six.
I haven’t really watched Noein, but its got rave reviews, and Shakugan no Shana should be getting more interesting in episode 8, as Fencedude said. It’s all up to you to decide though.
Have been tempted by your entries to pick up Rozen Maiden Träumend but just no time now. T_T
Noien is awesome. Suzuka has crappy animation, but it has a great script and direction. HYD is CHEESY. I hated episode 5 but hopefully 6 is more like 1-4.
Your picks are dead on! As for HYD, I really love how crappy Tsukasa’s fighting is. I mean he’s supposed to be good right, but his actor obviously has no idea how to fight (or throw an apple for that matter) which makes it look somewhat comical. I guess being a pretty-boy idol doesn’t help in terms of doing manly stuff (like throwing an apple or a punch!). He was quite good in Gokusen though, so maybe it’s just this series
P.S. HYD is almost worth it just for Tsukushi’s absolute cuteness =)
Well, the reason that Suzuka can make it into the top 5 is rather caused by the absence of better series. A lot of things that make Suzuka entertaining might not even be intented but content-wise it’s pretty solid and it’s really different from other stories of the same genre. So it’s not the 1000th iteration of some standard romantsu plot. The animation is certainly not state of the art but Suzuka is a good example that a series with mediocre animation can beat brain-less eye-sugar at any time.
Agreed, Suzuka is by no means a great anime series in a critical sense (the way a series like Honey & Clover is), but none of the recent series I’ve been watching are worthy of critical acclaim. Still, it is very very entertaining, and the way young dating is portrayed is much more believable than in the standard harem garbage that gets served up. What really bumps Suzuka into the uber fun category, however, is all the great unintentional comedy and the great fashion.
BTW, Epi, you mention Tsukasa’s poor throwing skills, but what about how Rui tried to catch the apple? He looked like he was mortified at the possibility of breaking a nail!!! Fabulous fun =).
Also, I haven’t kept up with Noein, so it’s not that I dislike it, I just haven’t watched much of it.
I’d agree that Suzuka is not “artsy” (a less respectful form of “critical acclaim”), and this is exactly why I enjoy it quite a bit. It’s simply telling a fairly believable story in a very sober way. No frills, no flashyness. And this kind of show has been getting increasingly rare. I’d pick the content over the cover anytime. Which is one of the reasons why – against the majority consensus – I’d pick Suzuka over H&C for the famous remote island, the second one being that I prefer its characters over H&C, where I failed to connect with Takemoto and Hagu.
Noein is another one of the “awesome cover” productions. I’ll probably marathon it back up when more eps are available.
ok So i just saw the first ep of the mai otemoe thing and I was wondering. . .is it like a whoel different universe with the same characters mainly in different roles or what? I mean the main hime boss lady mashiro is like a 5 yr old annoying ass kid (she was badass in the first one i thoguht) mikoto is a cat. . .and the teacher dude is wearin this funny organge hat all the time and not to mention the headmaster. . .wtf is goin on?
Well, Mai Otome is an alternate universe, which means that there can be characters with similar names in this series but with different personalities, roles, beliefs etc.
You may also call it recycling.
*lol*
Okay, that’s a mean way to put it, Chris ^_^ … you’ve got a point, but I think it’s more than that. It’s rather putting to use characters you know from the past. Example: In Mai HiME it took a full episode to introduce the character of Midori. In episode 8 of Otome, she only needs to appear briefly to give the Aswald leader alot of pre-characterization without having to spend more than half a minute on it.
After the last Mai Otome ep, it’s clear that this show has the most complex background story setup I’ve _ever_ seen developed in any anime after mere 8 episodes. Without “recycling”, this couldn’t have worked at all.