Being out of town for so long, it’s not easy plunging back into the mix. Posts have been a little slower lately, as I’ve been trying to catch up on my massive backlog! Most of the top shows have been going very strong (this summer has been awesome thus far), so there wasn’t that much movement at the top. I think I’ve been enjoying all the drama that’s been playing out, and I have to accept Ender’s accusation of being a drama fiend.
BTW, to the Suzuka manga readers out there: ZOMG, Honoka! It’s like a mix of brilliance and bumbling ineptitude at key moments! If Yamato weren’t so frustrating, this could be a totally different story.
Top Five This Month:
- Honey & Clover II: I swear this show is such a guilty pleasure. It’s like I’m sitting there all concerned and worked up over Hagu’s condition, and then I realize that this is no different than a trashy soap opera T__T. Other awesome moments include a horny drunken Mayama getting locked out of Rika’s room and the continued lack of Takemoto screen time. BTW, Floyd Electric had some seriously weak-sauce legal protection against a hostile takeover; next time hire some real lawyers to draft your shareholder contracts!
- Zero no Tsukaima: I have to say that ZnT satisfies my harem cravings, even though it’s pretty clear that Louise is going to win. They’re also busting out all the stops with the wide variety of moe challengers, with a medieval bent.
- Utawarerumono: Hakuoro’s bunch is still going strong, and the Karura episodes were awesome. Still, I had to penalize the series for the introduction of mechanical bunny suits. Why? Because I hated the end of Scrapped Princess, that’s why! If I were Eruru, I’d go get some sexy clothes and put an end to all this “You’re like a family member” nonsense.
- Ouran Host Club: As expected, Ouran Host Club came back strong with some quality flashbacks that expose the flaws of the various hosts. Hell, Renge really knows her stuff, and I’m glad that the characters have gotten a bit more depth. The wonder twins have been kinda annoying me with their angst lately (even though it is past angst I guess), and so I was happy to see some random maid-thief cheat them and bust their piggy bank.
- Welcome to the NHK: I recently spoiled myself on the manga, but I still think they’ve been doing a great job with the anime. Unlike the case with Nana (after reading the manga, I had zero desire to watch any more of the anime), reading the manga only makes me want to watch the anime even more. BTW, the Freud analysis was awesome when animated.
Rising:
- Side Characters in Bleach Manga: I can’t believe it, but Ichigo has actually shown the slowest rate of powering up lately. He needs to learn to haxxor like Orihime. Imagine if Orihime ever encountered Michael Jackson?!
Falling:
- Ergo Proxy: When you think about it, a lot of this series has just been long conversations about trippy stuff. However, when you’ve waited a long time between episodes (yet another reason to marathon), a weird chatty game show episode that followed a weird brain-bender episode just doesn’t quite cut it. Still, I expect Ergo Proxy to bounce back strong next month.
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.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Heh, I have not touched NHK( personal taste) and H&CII( I intend to marathon it when it ends). Other than these two, I am watching the rest as well. Hmm… my personal top five for August? Well, I am relunctant to rank them, so I’ll cop out and list my top five favourites alphabetically.
ARIA The NATURAL:
Why yes, it is the anime that everybody seems to watch, but nobody wants to talk about…
No comments on the action bgm that plays when Athena ‘saves’ Alice. Possibly the ONLY action scene in the series. ^^;
Innocent Venus:
A pleasant surprise for this summer. Plagued by initial perceptions that it was just another ho-hum action series, it has managed to capture my attention this summer. Not afraid to kill innocents by spades, the storyline may be another deriative of the “Little Girl with Powerful Secrets Hidden Within Her”, but they have managed to put enough effort into the series to make it captivating.
Likable characters( except Gora), antagonists you can sympathise with, questionable protagonists who may not be such good guys after all, beautiful music, good OP/ED, mutiple side characters that add more depth to the world, etc…
It is truly a pity that not more people talk about it.
/me fanboys over Jin( it sounds wrong, I know; but you got to love this guy).
Inukami!:
It’s soooo wrong, it becomes right.
Not a single episode has failed to make me laugh thus far.
Strawberry Panic:
I don’t care what anybody says! I LOVE THIS SHOW! The sheer insanity of the premise, the massive quantities of melodrama, the potential psychotism, etc…
Go Tamao, go!
Utawarerumono:
I have good faith in this series to do well all the way to the finishing line.
After the leisurely pace of Ep16-19, the story progression has sped up considerably and I hope they conclude the finale properly.
I am weary of defending the presence of the mecha, so I will just link to my multiple comments on that particular issue in the following link.
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Limbo Land:
—- —-
School Rumble: I wish I knew Japanese…
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Do I Like It Or Not?
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Ergo Proxy: On one hand, I love the absurdity and the occasional tender slice of life. On the other hand, I have no idea what the frell is going on. Vincent goes to Moscow, but Moscow went BOOM because of an ICBM. So now Vincent has to GO BACK to Romdeau?
ORZ
Coyote Ragtime Show: Fanboyism is the only thing keeping me going now. Alas.
This is a show that has truly jumped the shark; and I swear I want to hit something everytime they chirp, “Mister!” over, and over, and over again.
Cheers.
Wow the thread on Hop, Step, Jump grew rather long and emotional quite quickly! I think what really set everyone off is the phrase “jump the shark” as it implies something wonderful finally reaching that point where only death and misery (and the Fonze) lie ahead. Anyways, just wanted to clarify, I don’t have a problem with the introduction of mecha per se; I only cringe because when it happened in Scrapped Princess, it ended up being horribly implemented and causing the whole second half of the series to crash in flames. If Eruru gets a set of huge shoulder pads, I’m boycotting the series.
I agree the constant “MISSSSTAAAAH!” drives me crazy like an episode of R.O.D., but I dunno if you can consider CRS as jumping the shark since it was never really very deep or (arguably) very good. At least Innocent Venus brings the action without the corniness.
Vincent’s just lucky he doesn’t have to pay gas prices since his ship runs on wind power. Imagine if he was making this trip in a large SUV????
I’m so happy I scrapped Scrapped Princess half-way through. I think I’ve never done that before even if the show was rather mediocre. It’s a pity, the wasted bandwidth that is.
After two crapped episodes (3 and 4 IIRC), NHK is getting incrementally better. The mix of tragedy and comedy is very welcome. Also it’s a about realistic issues – even if somewhat stretched.
I really had a similar thought when I watched Honey & Clover yesterday. It’s very different from anything you could watch on a (local) TV station but under the surface it’s indeed kind of soapy but it’s never been my favourite show anyway. For example, I would have put NHK on the first place of the current shows.
Has anyone watched FLAG? While pretty on first sight, it seems to be a one-trick-pony (“Let’s show everything through a camera objective!!1″) and sleep-inducing.
Perhaps all this family nonsense is because you know….. SHE MIGHT BE?
Can we guarantee that Hakuoro is not related to her?
And let’s not forget the image of her late father being sillhoutted onto Hakuoro in the first episodes
You know… I guess that is a good point. Damn that is so Star Wars.
Well, why take the risk? Just move right on to Karura then!
>>> I’m so happy I scrapped Scrapped Princess half-way through. I think I’ve never done that before even if the show was rather mediocre. It’s a pity, the wasted bandwidth that is.
I thought Scrapped Princess was very good. o_O It’s not as good as RahXephon, but I think I actually liked it more than FMA.
I actually like the fact that the side characters in Bleach getting more powerful instead of just Ichigo hording all the power. I’m usually annoyed when the main character gets all the power while the side characters are just there and getting beaten easily.
Well, I just watched Ep22 of Utawarerumono, and there was a twist with the ‘mecha’.
I was surprised, to say the least.
*grins*
Yay for the return of Honoka-megamisamaaaa! I never expected Suzuka to really become interesting again. Damn, was I wrong!
If what I pieced together about Hakuoro is true, if he has sex with ANYONE, it would be considered incest.
COROLLARY: That also means that Aruruu and Eruruu are related to Niwe, Inkara, Swonkasu, the evil bunny people, Karura, etc.
*1, 2, 3…..*
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
>>> If what I pieced together about Hakuoro is true, if he has sex with ANYONE, it would be considered incest.
If you consider that an incest, then Arwen and Aragorn relationship is also incest.
I still belive Utawarerumono anime has a chance to become very good, in spite of what I may have sounded like in Hop Step Jump.
While I enjoyed Scrapped Princess as a whole tremendously I agree it got kind of weak near the end. The two-three episodes of medieval slice of life was magic though, I could watch a whole series like that!