What a month, as several hard hitters ended, and plenty of new contenders filed in. While some series went out strong (Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid), others dipped a bit (Honey & Clover), and then there’s Gundam Seed Destiny which simply mailed it in completely. We’ve gotten reliable subbing for many series, but I am still in the dark about what happened with Futakoi Alternative. The new season has been entertaining, so look forward to some thoughts about that in another post.
Top Five This Month:
- Suzuka: With the animation looking decent again, there’s nothing standing in the way of some strong romantic drama. Someone join me in cheering on Suzuka, because it looks like Honoka is amassing an army of admirers…
- Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid: So nothing really got resolved, but damn I was entertained the whole time. Twincest went down pretty easy, but Tessa Happy Dance for the win! Wait till the Arbalest starts giving Sousuke dating advice (like Yasunobu…), cause Sousuke’s gonna need the Lambda Driver just to keep all the girls off of him.
- Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo: This series was so much better and deeper than it should have been. Is high jumping replacing blue-haired girls as the new good-luck element that all anime series need to have?
- Mai Otome: While not yet up to the level of the Mai Hime mid-season episodes, Mai Otome is already megameters ahead of the game in its first three episodes. I am absolutely amazed at how much more I like the story now that almost every single annoying character from last season has had his/her screen time cut. Making Mikoto a non-talking, fat cat was a stroke of brilliance!
- Sousei no Aquarion: Wow, welcome back! The cosplay episode was a bit ugly, but still very funny. I almost died when Fudo busted out his three-points-define-a-plane hand signal. He has to be smoking crack; there is simply no other explanation.
Rising:
- Bleach: The only thing that tempers my enthusiasm for the great battling and constant Ichigo power-ups is the fear that after this arc ends, it will devolve into some awful Naruto-esque sludge for several months.
Falling:
- Naruto: The fillers were always dumb, but now they’re ugly, too. There has to be a blonde joke in here somewhere…
Related posts:
21 Comments
I’m probably one of the minority that would vote for EyeShield 21 to be on the Rising spots, if not on the Top-tier.
Glad you’re enjoying Otome, because I already hate it. I’m a sucker for mind-numbingly physics-defying animation, crazy sound effects, and awesome music (read: Noein). Mai-Otome has none of these. Nope, not even Kajiura Yuki can save this series.
I join you: GO SUZUKA! I feel sympathetic toward Honoka but Yamato is Suzuka’s man. No competition.
Gee whiz, the burning “train wreck” has landed on top of your list? Wonders never cease ^_^
Little funny internal detail: The translator and editor are hardcore Suzuka fanboys, the timer is relatively neutral but the typesetter and encoder are adamant Honoka disciples. The last scripts I received were all named “Honoka(12-16)-F.ass”. Unfortunately, the show has a different name after all…
Just finished watching Suzuka 17. The loser team was animating it again. If it wasn’t for them committing their animutilation crimes, it would be such a double-thumbsup-episode…
About Mai-Otome: The first three episodes are already clearly better than the start of Mai HiME. It would be a little bit unfair to compare them to the middle and end run of MH, because good drama needs to have a foundation laid out. We’re at that right now ^_^
So, what’s your impression of the last episode of ‘Honey and Clover’? I don’t think I ever got to read about it.
While I’m a card-carrying member of the Honoka Fanboy Army, I’m not really a fan of the Honoka-Yamato pairing. The more I think about it, the more I think Suzuka and Honoka should just forget about Yamato and go out with each other instead! :p
Mai Otome looks promising but I’m ever so fearful of Mai to returning in her Kagutsuchi Strike Freedom Robe and GSDify the series.
Mentar> Burning train wreck indeed! But it’s just sooo addictive. In a macabre sort of way. LOL
>Zyl
Hehe, I was thinking *exactly* the same thing about Mai Otome — It’s much to early to say anything at this point, but my hackles are raised ^_^
And is it just me, but is the number / quality of shonen titles going down after each season? Aside from Bleach (fairly good) and Naruto (no comment), there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly noteworthy T_T
Hey, I have no problem admitting when I was wrong!
Willow: I really wonder if Yamato can shake free of Suzuka’s grip on his mind. Go Suzuka!
Mentar: you have to admit, some of the early episodes weren’t quite that good, and the occasionally fugly animation really does make it harder to enjoy Suzuka. Awesome information about the subbing team, though! I’m not trying to criticize Mai Otome for not matching up to the high points of Mai Hime, I’m just making sure that people realize that it is good, just not OMGCORALROXXOR. Yet.
Garten: I didn’t write up anything about the final episode of Honey & Clover, but it was still enjoyable. It didn’t really end with that flair that the series started with, but at the same time I’m not sure how else it could have finished up in 24 episodes. It was satisfying, and yet left me wanting more at the same time. I guess maybe I like the characters so much, that I would have liked to see some more resolution to their various stories. Still, I think they did an ok job wrapping everything up. Takemoto just kinda bores me.
Zyl: I’m constantly thinking what will happen if Yamato ends up with someone completely different, but I never thought of a Suzuka x Honoka pairing. As for Mai Otome, please don’t let Mai return! Everything is going so well without her! A dragon with dragoons would be… too much.
David: Other than Bleach, shounen has really had a dry season. I have to watch Nanoha for my constant powerups now!
Aww, I find Takemoto to be the most interesting character of them all. Plus, he gets some of the best character development and lines in comparison to the rest. But I guess everyone who can’t relate to his problem will probably think he’s boring. And I wonder sometimes if people actually think the series as a comedy instead of a slife of lice series with some comedy thrown in. As for wanting more, I haven’t seen anyone who doesn’t want more episode.
I agree with you about Takemoto’s development, and his feelings about where his life is going, but I just found the other storylines more engaging. I especially liked Mayama’s portion T__T.
At the risk of sounding shallow, I really didn’t like the ending to Honey and Clover, just because it was so *weak* — I typically like my books/movies/films to end up with all plot lines tied up nicely / full circle, and it seemed like Honey and Clover was particularly obnoxious about flouting this custom.
More specifically, I was particularly disappointed in the way that the second half of the series almost completely ignored the Nomiya-Mayama-Yamato-Rika schism, and completely threw out any supporting material for the Morita-Hagu relationship . . . all in favor of Takemoto. Additionally, I’m not sure if I agree that Takemoto *really* showed any character development — at the end, Takemoto still seems to unable to reconcile his goals and seems to lack the mental fortitude of his peers.
Argh — I apologize that this is coming out so strongly, but I certainly thought that Honey & Clover was nearly the best title of 2005, but it mostly went downhill from the point that Takemoto started his bike voyage >_<
Hey I’ve always been a Suzuka fan. I just like girls with spirit a lot more than quiet girls I guess.
As for Mai Otome, I completely agree. Mai’s annoying brother is nowhere to be seen and Mikoto is finally just a cat. Meanwhile even Nagi isn’t as annoying as he used to be and is in fact quite funny. Shiho and her medusa hair have very little screentime except to make fun of her annoying character. All in all good developments.
For FMP… yeah nothing got resolved, but then what were you expecting? It WAS FMP after all
Still. great series.
Haha, I’m waiting for them to bring back Takumi in a reduced role as a woman. It just feels right.
I think H&C did not intentionally ‘left out’ the Ayu-Mayama-Rika problem. It simply chooses to follow the manga’s plot to a T. Unfortunately, the manga decides to take a break from that triangle to resolve Takemoto’s problem first and foremost. But the fact that the anime only has 24 episodes made the possibility of covering the Mayama-Rika-Ayu triangle non-existent. Besides, the triangle has gone on for 3+ years, it’s impossible to resolve it all in a matter of a few episodes.
I agree that Takemoto has yet to completely grasp his goal but I think that’s part of the reason that I enjoyed the series so much. Not that many people in reality know what they want or what they want to do right away. But I think, Takemoto has gone from someone who missed out on his chance just because he’s too afraid to try, to a person who actually does something about it. As far as the future goes, the last episode suggests that Takemoto wants to become a travelling temple restorer like Shin-san and the others. That’s why Shin told him to get a driver’s license. In this sense, at least he has a direction of where he wants to go now.
I also think that we can actually logically guess how all of the things that couldn’t be covered by the anime will end. For example, no matter how much Ayu has a crush on Mayama, Mayama doesn’t have the same feeling for her. So Mayama and Ayu will most likely will never happened. On the other hand, Rika seems to sway a bit towards Mayama from time to time when she’s not angsting towards her husband. So logically, you know which couple is more likely. The latest chapter of the manga seems to suggest this as well so in that respect, the situation is not that different from the way the last anime episode ends.
As for Morita and Hagu, I’d argue that there wasn’t much between the two of them to begin with. It’s more like a crush between two people when they first met each other. However, when they’re apart, they realise that they can live perfectly well without the other. And sometimes that’s just how relationship works. On the other hand, Hagu is clearly troubled without the support of Takemoto and Takemoto clearly realised that he is still not over Hagu, thus his decision to blurt out his feeling for her. Understandably, if one is a fan of Morita and want him to get the girl, they’re probably are going to be disattisfied with the current progression.
Anyway, I think Honey and Clover is still the best title out of 2005. So far nothing that has come out of the Fall anime list manages to resonate with and entertain me as much as Honey and Clover.
Very interesting points, Garten — thanks for the explanation! I guess I have to take back my comments about Takemoto — he certainly has matured. I suppose it’s rather unfair to keep on comparing Takemoto with the scads of anime protagonists that know *exactly* what they want to do in life (i.e. Naruto wants to become Hokage, Shindo Hikaro wants to become the strongest Go player, Ryoma Echizen wants to become . . . etc.)
Just as a quick question, would you recommend the H&C manga? Although I guess the Mayama-Rika pairing does seem inevitable, I still can’t wait to see whether Ayu & Nomiya eventually get together.
David, you don’t have to agree with me if you actually don’t like Takemoto as a character.
I understand that there are people who probably don’t understand why Takemoto doesn’t know what he wants to do. I mean even Morita was wondering “Why does Takemoto needs to find himself? Yourself is yourself, right?”. But that’s just shows how different people can be. I personally envy people who knows what they want to do and knows how to achieve it. I think everyone aspires to become that kind of person. But that is why Takemoto resonates so much for me and some H&C viewers because even though he doesn’t know what he wants to do, he actively tries to find it. Having said that, I do realise that his problem probably feels like a waste of time to those who already know what they want to do in their life.
I would recommend H&C manga because not only it continues all of the unresolved plot/romantic threads from the anime but also because it delves further into some other characters like Morita and his brother, Kaoru. Now, I’m not sure if I’ve said this before or not but I always get the impression that people see H&C as either romantic story or a comedy story. I think H&C are neither. It has elements of both romance and comedy to attract its viewers but at its core it’s a story about a group of people growing up and finding out what is important in their life and that includes personal fulfillment, love and friendship. I think the focus about Ayu’s relationship is not so much on the relationship itself but more on her personal development as a person. It’s more about letting go and the difficulty of doing so when you’ve been so attached to a person for so long.
Honoka fanboys will disperse soon enough. Ep19 gives Honoka fanboys a good reminder why the show is called Suzuka in the first place. Honoka is the worst character in the series, generic, boring, yawn inducing, very typical stock character with all the same tired cliches. Oh yeah, for that so called Honoka “disciple”, cut the crap, a fanboy is a fanboy. Just have some balls or guts to admit you’re a fanboy, don’t try to use other words to cover your fanboyism.
Now I’m curious. Will it be like
Yamato: Honoka, do you want to marry me?
Suzuka: Alright, now cut the crap. This is my goddamn show. So get the fuck out of here Honoka!!!11
Yamato: Uhm, uh…Suzuka..eh..do you want to marry me?
Suzuka: *ROTFL* Are you stupid?
Chris,
PLEASE PUT SPOILER TAGS ON THESE TYPES OF COMMENTS!!! =D
admitted honoka fanboy here. here’s to hoping suzuka gets run over by a mack truck. ^_^V
“Why does Takemoto needs to find himself? Yourself is yourself, right?”.
When one know one’s self, it seems simple, but not easy to get there.