It’s that time again, folks. Then again, when is it not time to post more pointlessly opinionated lists?
Board Leaders:
- The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi: I think everyone and their second cousin’s dog watches this. A no-brainer.
- Utawarerumono: Surprisingly solid for an H-conversion. It’s got all the trappings of a totally sweet shounen series plus super cuteness in all the right places ftw. It’s also the first series where I have to practice saying the title.
- School Rumble 2nd Semester: Sure it’s just more of the same, but that’s exactly what I wanted. Kinda miss the old intro, but the new one is steadily growing on me. Sorely missing the old outro though.
- Ouran High School Host Club: Incredibly clean art and animation, plus funky surreal school setting, heartwarming stories, and center eligibility propel this series into the upper ranks of the Big Board. Repetitive bishounen jokes will hurt its prospects in leagues that consider dialogue/bishijoke ratio as a scoring category.
- xxxHOLiC: Though the lanky character designs may put some folks off, I find the supernatural mystique theme to be irresistible. The incredibly psychedelic movie was icing on the cake. Now, if only Watanuki would stop overreacting to everything.
On the bubble:
- Black Lagoon: Not particularly deep, but quite pretty. Salaryman hero adds +10 to value.
Guilty Pleasure:
- Sooooul Link: I won’t try to hide it – this series is quite lame in virtually all respects. Its power graph looks like a little tiny dot in the center. It’s hard to be a breakout hit like Magikano when you’re encased in a thick titanium shell of mediocrity. I could go on all day about those incredibly simplistic CG scenes, the washed-out palette, the abundant cliches, etc. There’s still hope in this Pandora’s box though, as all the trappings of a decent SF series are there. We’ve got terrorists hijacking a space training academy, a younger brother who does not hate his mojotastic older brother, some odd unexplained events, and rocket-chest girl. Actually, that last one is a negative, but the fact that the main character refers to her as rocket chest girl is just awesome. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m optimistic that kami-sama will smile upon this poor soul.
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Ender – who has written 219 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the original founders, and the first to attempt a coups d'état.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
salaryman flipping the bird while saying ” I ‘*ed you” adds an additional 10
rocket chest:D looks like someone can’t get enough mahoro
…
I HIGHLY doubt soul link will go beyond the medicrity it’s at now… the one time I felt anythign good about it was when shuuhei pwnd underwear chick with one hand … but that;’s because lolis with attitude annoy me >.>
I’m a bit puzzled that Fate/stay night drops off your charts right when it actually begins to be REAL good
… especially waiting for your Episode 14 entry, which I’d list as one of the best anime episodes ever produced.
Black Lagoon fulfills my need for occasional mindless, no-brains-required, cool fun, and above all, entertaining action anime.
Just so many cool action sequences in this one…
Torpedo… IN THE FACE!
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Can’t get into the groove for xxxHOLiC though. Guess it’s not my kind of anime. My current guilty pleasure is probably Strawberry Panic.
Cheers.
Black Lagoon is definitely craaaazzy. I’m just waiting for some semblance of plot to develop to bump it up the charts.
Mentar, I think you’re looking for Kabitzin’s April List. He’s the one that makes up those kooky entries.
teferi, I actually didn’t like Mahoromatic much. It’s just that Shuhei totally hit the nail on the head when he came up with that nomiker. Yu’s character design is the most grievous out of all of the Soul Linkers.
“Though the lanky character designs may put some folks off” … hmm, I cant see why people might not like this, but I guess there are. I like ‘em a lot, actually. Silly CLAMP.
O_o maybe becauser they all look like theyre on stilts … I mean they mess around with proportions in anime as it is… but theres a limit and CLAMP crossed a bit so irks a bunch of people… I personally have less of a problem with the characters and more with how lazily drawn the rest of the show(XXXholic) looks…
I admit, i have soul link as a guilt to…. but it is just so funny half of the time, yet so serious!
This period is very exciting, so much good shows. Maybe I’m becoming half-brained for real, but I enjoyed Ouran High School Host Club very very much. The instant-coffee scene is one of the best comedy parts I’ve ever seen. That’s what captured me most. Also, I’m in love with “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi”, too, I’m in the bandwagon (not without a little shame).
I’m also very eager of the endings of Ergo Proxy and F/sn. Big fan of those. Like Mentar pointed out, the Archer battle episode of F/sn was MAGNIFICENT.
My surprise show was Utawarerumono – I watched half of first ep then quit. Yesterday I watched the first 3 eps and I’d say it’s good. The tail-petting-scene comes to my mind: It’s a sweet anime, puts me in a good, “fluffy” mood. Ahh, the good ol’ times, people helping each other even if they’re poor, the love for nature….the simple pleasures of life (like striking your girl’s tail ^_^ ).So nice.
I didn’t read the Black Lagoon Manga but I have a feeling the story will start covering some of the political aspects of the pirate business at some point and that usually means a deeper plot.
[quote]Like Mentar pointed out, the Archer battle episode of F/sn was MAGNIFICENT.[/quote]
archer = l33t engrish horror O_o;;
I couldn’t stop laughing when he got to the “I haf crewated a thwousand bwades” part …
teferi: C’mon, don’t blame (us) non-native english speakers too much. If you’d listen to my spoken english you’ll laugh too, I believe ^_^
As for engrish, I noted that on Ouran High School Host Club, in the scene when they show the School ID card of Haruhi, is written “Ouran Hight School” ….. or something like that.
It was speculated that the producers were making a pun. High-T(ea).
Whether or not it is true though… who knows.
[quote]teferi: C’mon, don’t blame (us) non-native english speakers too much. If you’d listen to my spoken english you’ll laugh too, I believe ^_^[/quote]
it’s not so much that I blame non english speakers (heck I’ve got some teachers that barely speak it)… it’s just that the parts where he actually went back tp japanese sounded so much cooler… but then he switched back to engrish -_-
and I jighly doubt it was a pun… just an error … happens all the time in anime when they try to write english…
I like the beginning of the new School Rumble OP a lot, and I even like the new ED. Believe it!