I really haven’t been following much lately due to an insane work schedule. Some great series like SSO and Rozen Maiden Traumend have just finished up, while others like Gun X Sword are still lounging around in raw heaven. If only we had some connections with Shinsen…
Here’s the current league leaders thus far:
Top Picks This Month:
- Magikano: Took me by surprise; the premise smacks of generic harem, but the show has been quite entertaining so far, in a fluffy diet kind of way. The pacing is swift, there’s oodles of SD humor packed in, and the character designs are cute. The male lead’s stupidity leads to some amusing situations, too…”are you guys kindergarteners?” :).
- Fate/Stay Night: Seems like one of those series that lends itself more to rampant speculation than anything else. Lovely character please the eye, while the smoldering tension strings me helplessly along. Soundtrack by Kenji Kawai? Count me in. Reminds me heavily of X, but with a tad less dramatic posturing. Can’t wait for the payoff!
- REC: Interesting twist on the standard formula thus far, but will the lovely couple ever stop beating around the bush? I’m loving the super snappy pacing and style though; the short episode format really forces the writers to milk every minute for all it’s worth. Of couse, all the extraneous factors add up as well – the addictive opening sequence, the split second eyecatches, the psychedelic cat/tree hybrid…yes, especially that freaky mascot. So mesmerizing! I must go out and buy some Ha! now.
- Black Cat: Incredibly formulaic, but I can’t help myself. I need my shounen fix!! I do have a bone to pick with this genre though; the protagonists in “merc-for-hire” shows are always penniless and destitute, even when they have mad skillz. There’s always some sort of rationale given, like the protagonists suck at finding jobs, are just too lazy, or only take good samaritan jobs pro bono. The freakin’ Getbackers take crappy jobs from homeless bums, the Daphne crew has to pay for all the collateral damage they cause, and Kabitzin says the Mezzo Forte DSA simply sucked. I suppose the overriding reason is that if the heroes were rich, they wouldn’t be motivated to take any dangerous jobs, and there would be no show
Still, it would be nice to have some heroes that aren’t grumbling about being hungry all the time. One of the few exceptions is Gon/Killua in Hunter X Hunter, as they made a ton of moola from the sky tower fights, but blew most of it on candy >_< .
Saving Up for Later:
I’m collecting Monster, Noein, Mushishi, Ergo Proxy, and Rescue Wings for marathoning. By all accounts these should be some yummy treats indeed.
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15 Comments
Ender, I salute you. Again it seems our anime tastes are very similar. I would have added the excellent Shakugan no Shana to the list (and cannot comment on Black Cat), but 100% ack for the rest. I’m also totally surprised by Magikano, but it WORKS. Harem with non-googly-eyed partly-evil witches with attitudes is definitely right up my alley. To think that I once felt really guilty and icky when I first recommended it to some anime friends…
F/sn isn’t the uberwinner so far, but after all the initial hype, what remains is still a very interesting setup with appealing characters. Rin has stolen the show and is currently running away with it, but since I’ve been a Rin fan all along, that’s fine with me.
Oops. Add Mai Otome to my list too
“I’m collecting Monster,…, and Rescue Wings for marathoning”
Yes! The propaganda campaign worked! Now to spread the love of these 2 shows somewhere else \(^o^)/
Thou shalt not marathon Monster.
>> all the extraneous factors add up as well – the addictive opening sequence
Ugh. REC’s opening sequence makes me wish I could die every time it plays. Kanako Sakai is awful at singing and voice acting. Sad, really, because her character (Aka) would be great without her.
While I don’t think REC’s opening sequence vocals are particularly excellent or horrible, the song itself is pretty catchy. Plus, it wouldn’t make sense if Aka was an incredible singer, because she’s supposed to be an amateur. The ridiculous CG mascot clumsily tap-dancing across the title screen really tickles my funny bone too, for some reason.
Mentar, I started questioning my sanity when I realized I was enjoying Magikano. It’s a hard sell, to be sure.
A marathon of Monster would definitely kill me o_O … I tried to look 20 eps in a row one night and my head almost exploded. I like it, but geez…it’s heavy stuff!
“others like Gun X Sword are still lounging around in raw heaven”
Uh, Shinsen put out eps 14-16 a few weeks back, (checked and noticed 13 was your last blog of it, seriously thought you had dropped it) and they were AWESOME! Van’s the Man!
In the manga Train and Sven were hideously rich as one of their hideouts were as lavish as a rock stars mansion
Conrath, is that much later in the storyline, or was that a feature that the anime just chose to neglect? It really bugs me that they are half starving all the time.
Rufus, Kabitzin’s the one that blogs Gun X Sword; I think he’s already watched up through 16 as well, but hasn’t blogged em yet.
I keep telling myself I’ll get to the crazy neko-ear Armor, but I’ve yet to just sit down and type up the post!
BLACK CAT 4TW! I can’t help myself, either. Plus, Train is so dreamy…or something. I’m probably going to pick up REC, too, since it seems quite controversial so far… :3 At least, a lot of complaining about sex.
BLack Cat is pure fluff of fun. I believe the love-starved Creed is on crack, just how I like my psychos. ;p I’ve been curious with Fate/sn but all the hoopla surrounding the title weirdly turns me off. I’m not sure about the rest though.
A marathon of Noein and Mushishi? Definitely. As for Monster, I’d recommend marathoning the manga instead, and then watch the anime, that is if you’re impatient. Hee.
I think marathoning really good/deep/intelligent shows like Monster is a waste because you will very likely miss details. Also Monster had many effective cliff hangers and a marathon kills that effect completely. It’s like tasty food. If you wolf it down like no tomorrow, you’ll feel sick afterwards and become insensitive half-way through anyway. Watching Monster took me one and half year. I really wouldn’t recommend watching more than one episode a day. Just like good taste better if you eat it slowly, a good show becomes even better if you grant your brain some time to recapitulate each episode.
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Some shows also feel too repetitive when marathoned even though they are still great at the right dose (read: Noir).
Ah I just saw REC 1&2. Good points from this one. I’d give 9/10 for the setup, 6/10 for the animation, 6/10 for the comedy bits.I hope this show it doesn’t trip over himself, it was nice stuff imo.