I'm back!

You should see how much I’ve grown. Or not.

Yeah, it’s been almost a year since I last blog anything. 3 more papers till I’m finally free from my nightmare of having to take paper after paper after paper after paper after paper…

Oh, sorry. Did I rant too much? Silly me.

Yeah, so while I was away, I still get the chance to see quite a few anime series, some as good as Kimi ni Todoke, Umineko and Eden of the East and the crappy ones like Asura Cryin’ (Did not cry, you piece of junk), Miracle Train (Man, I don’t anyone watches it, but I only watch it for the sake of boredom.) and 07-Ghost (I’m starting to hate Studio DEEN ever since I watched Vampire Knight, but I’m still respecting it due to their involvement in Umineko, which is still as awesome as the 1st episode.)

Before I began ranting how much I’ve struggled over the year, let’s get into it. (Note: List of anime I’ve watched is not in order of the worst to the best and vice versa. I just jot down things that my brain pops up.) Erm, I’m getting extremely loquacious, let’s move on.

Note: Will be listing a number of series from Production I.G, Studio DEEN and Bones. It’s a good year for them, fortunately.

Eden of the East

Ahh…before it was aired, I thought it was some kind of unoriginal crap I’ve been getting after watching crappy anime series again and again. But the 1st episode proved me wrong. Love the ED sequence especially, with the creative use of paper, paper and more paper. And the best way for our main protagonist Akira to suffer from amnesia. (Why is he naked in the first place? D:)
Unfortunately, the story suffers in the middle and towards the end, but it get me some time to get used to the terminology of the series and know what on Earth is going on. But I shall praise for the clean animation (Though I’m not used to the character design. I guess that’s me.) and the decent use of CGI as many series which used CGI turns out like shit in the end.

Score: 8.5/10

Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood

My friend and I sometimes compared this with the original series that aired a few years ago. Coming to a conclusion, this series is very, very faithful to the manga (With some minor changes of course, but it doesn’t affect largely on the series.) unlike some other anime series like Vampire Knight and 07-Ghost which butchered the plot in the face of fans of the manga series. This series mixes humour and seriousness together quite well, keep it up, BONES (Thumbs up.) and also triggers my emotions at certain scenes (Such as Winry meeting the murderer of her parent Scar and the recent Ishbal massacre that made me feel sympathetic towards the soldiers who are involved in this war and angry for those who started it.)

Yeah, it was good with unexpected plot twists (For those who avoid reading the manga or just too lazy to check it out. I’m one of them) and the animation was crisp and detailed. It’s still ongoing, so go check it out if you can, though you have to tolerate the violence and gore in some of the episodes (Warning to those who can’t stand gore.) The music is good, anyways. (Rush to check out OPs and EDs.)

Score: 9/10

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Man, it’s getting more and more exciting. Until now it has been a very one-sided match between Battler and Beatrice, but episode 19 has gotten my feet up together to see the awesomeness once more, most of all the inclusion of Battler’s half-younger sister, Ange, and the use of blue text, which pars the power with Beatrice’s red text. Of all the WTF moments they have, this series is probably the 1st of all series I’ve listed to have it (Next to FMA: Brotherhood.) Though some parts Studio DEEN cut are also very crucial to the story (Which there are too many of them to list down.), they still do quite a great job on it and keeping as much consistency as possible, all thanks to the director who also did on Higurashi. (At least they did the right thing to picked someone experience to do Umineko, or else I would have switched this series off long ago.) I love the OP, but I don’t really get what the ED has to do with the series though I’m starting to get the hang of the ED. And unlike VK and 07-Ghost, they avoid showing their flaws as much as possible.

Score: 8.5/10

Kimi ni Todoke

Feels so familiar, now that I’m leaving school after my papers are over. Time for me to get a part-time job before my magic paper pops right in front of me before I know it. Back to the topic, it’s unique in its own way and the character design is on par with the manga. The pacing is good, as least for those who just want to chill in everyday life and make yourself happy. But most of all, I feel the same way as Saint Sawako Kuronuma, feeling the same way of being somewhat of an outcast and starts to open up to have friends who really care about her. Like FMA: Brotherhood, I’ve cried several times in the series, just like how Ouran has made me laugh of their shallow jokes and nonsense.

The only problem with the series is the male lead (Don’t bash me up, it’s only my opinion, not yours.). Don’t really know if a person like Kazehaya can exist in reality, but to me, he’s trying to be to please everyone (Or not) but he could just be trying too hard or become a yes-man to everybody (Except for a few instances.) But other than that, the characters are quite lovable, especially Pin, the temporary homeroom teacher of our fellow main characters. Just really wish that an anime series can stand out in their own way rather than being just carbon copies of each other.

Score: 9.5/10 (Yes, call me biased, or whatever.)

CANAAN

With plenty of bitches (Liang Qi), woman that fight and show off their guns (Alphard and Canaan) and very annoying girls who always acts as damsel in distresses (Maria Osawa, Yunyun but not as much as Sugoi Girl as some of our members in THAT put Maria as), I only watched the series for its animation awesomeness and the UA virus that has been affecting very important people, such as the Vice-President of Japan and the villagers who were infected by it. Well, it’s the only Type-Moon series I’ve watched, aside from the Kara no Kyoukai movie series, so I don’t know if this series is a miss or hit. I empathize how many of you by your reaction of Maria’s character (And speaking of Osawa, I almost mistaken from a pr0n star by the same name, only that her surname is Ozawa instead of Osawa). Also, that reminds me of a girl in Miracle Train that somehow talks like Osawa at the beginning of episode 5 with sugoi, sugoi sugoi!!!! Still, once again, P.A. Works has prove us right that they can do action scenes as well.

Score: 7.5/10 (All because of Maria. That’s why.)

Asura Cryin’

This series is trying too hard to squeeze too many things, mainly a mecha theme, a harem (And a very stereotypical one in that.), science fiction, magic and way too many things that I found myself unable to count after 5.

The animation doesn’t really stand out (Seven Arcs, why???) and the only reason why I watched this series because I thought it has potential aside from it’s animation, but I was wrong. Let’s not talk about all these things, shall we? At least it has the guts to try out something new, but the 2nd season has pushed the series in oblivion. So I’m going to end my rant here, once and for all.

Score: 4/10

Shangri-La

I only start watching this series till the end at the middle of the series, ’cause the earlier parts has turned me off. Despite GONZO in the brink of bankruptcy and all (So sorry if I am inaccurate at GONZO’s position of that time. I was away from the anime world at the earlier part of the year.) and it was quite consistent, from the looks of it. This series gives us some time to get used to the world they are living in, and imagine what will happen to the world. (Please do not talk about 2012 all over again for me. I’m somehow sick and tired of this prediction, may it be true or not.) But they pulled a rather rushed ending, but I think that’s GONZO for you.

Score: 7/10

Valkyria Chronicles

Probably one of the most decent anime adaptation from a console game. Been very wary of reviews that anime adaptations from a console game doesn’t live up to an average anime standard (Maple Story, Ragnarok etc.) but for Valkyria Chronicles, it’s still quite acceptable (I don’t own a PS3, if you ask.). But also, I’ve been doing some research about the game too (And it’s sequel releasing next year in Japan.) and found out that some parts in the game are missed out but there’s no way for us to do anything, now that the damage has been done. But unfortunately for me, I stopped watching the series halfway (One reason was that I was too stressed if I am able to continue this series, so I didn’t really see the later half.) but it was still quite both a surreal and refreshing experience for me.

Score: 8/10

07-Ghost

This series has left my friend crying and lamenting in a corner, for obvious reasons. The anime doesn’t live up to the standards as the manga.

At first, before the airing of the anime, my friend encouraged me heavily to catch this series, “’cause the manga’s really good,” she says. Then, after the 1st episode aired, she went fuming away, and only stayed to watch it to compare the difference between the anime with the manga. Me, like she said, I picked it up, but the 1st episode gives me a feeling that it’s gonna suck. (Sorry, fan girls, if I have hurt your feelings about this series, which I will explain later below.)

Now and then do I pick up any random episodes as for and when I like and watch it, but seeing the characters and story unfold very slowly and painfully has got me click ‘back’ whenever I get really upset. Speaking of which, whenever I watched any of the scenes in any episode, I always have this Vampire Knight (anime) vibe onto me, telling me to stop watching this piece of crap and do more useful things instead of hogging in the computer all day long. It was a bad experience watching all the characters having stale personalities, but the animation and special effects are still decent. (When I asked my friend about it, she told me that the anime is only the exam arc or something, ’cause I never want to try getting into the series, fearing that the manga will hurt my feelings more.)

Score: 6/10 (At least the animation and special effects are decent.)

And there are some series that aren’t worth mentioning, but since mentioning, I’m only giving a three-sentence review about it and only watched them out of boredom and curiosity. So don’t ask why.

Note: I’ve only watched a glimpse about the shows, or read about others review of the series’ below either from word-to-mouth or from random sites :

1. K-ON!: Too much moe blob, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! (Especially Mio, I don’t see why so many Japanese otaku or whatnot picked her as a waifu if she exists in real life.) but it doesn’t appeal to me. Dropped.

2. Haruhi Suzumiya: Didn’t bother to watch it. I’ve heard from several reviews that the 2nd season is quite bad, especially the Endless Eight arc. Dropped.

3. Phantom: I’ve heard from some anime sites that said that the story and action is pretty good. I shall pick it up someday, though I don’t know if this is a good time.

4. Pandora Hearts: Again, some anime sites actually praised the plot as an underrated series. The animation reminds me of those 90’s anime style. I was still very young then, about 5 or 6.

5. Saki: MAHJONG POWAR! Reminds me of the Yu-Gi-Oh series, which I don’t really even bother. Oh well, epic fail. (Only watched the 1st episode, and then it turns all crappy of yuri undertones and the WTF power-up like those seen in typical shounen titles.) Dropped.

6. White Album: Only watched the first episode of season two, shut the series down after completing the same episode. A no-no for me. Dropped.

7. Cencoroll: Impressive, given that this is done only by one person (Besides Makoto Shinkai). I was still quite confused what the plot is about rather than fighting one another with monsters or something.

8. Higurashi OAV: It was really well written both humorous and serious. I kind of loved the last episode of the OAV, at least the mahjong part was not as creepy as Saki. (Should pick it up, even if you don’t know what on earth is going on in the previous 2 seasons.) Unlike all the other series, I watched the entire series from the 1st to the last.

9. Maria Holic: At least it was funny and the animation style kind of separates this from the rest (Except for Kimi ni Todoke, which also uses their own unique style). I would want to catch a second season if they have it, despite the yuri theme, gender bender and Catholic schools aspects.

*10. Bakemonogatari: Fine. Some of you insist on this series, I shall talk about it in 3 sentence (Or not.). Okay, I confess that I didn’t have time to watch this, but I’ll definitely watch the entire series when my paper ends on Wednesday. Back to the topic, I only watched episode 13 of the series, and I was pretty surprised (In a good way) of the way the characters speak and the artistic style. (I guess Director Akiyuki Shinbo has many series in his hands this year.) Do I intend to write this within 3 sentence? Yeah, so I shall check back to Bakemonogatari within this week, if I have the time.

So there you go. Maybe the few anime series may not be so few after all. Yikes! While I was away, I too picked up my obsession with Avatar: the Last Airbender (Ya, I know this sounds out of the blue speaking about non-anime stuff in an anime blog) and I can’t wait for Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep to be released early next year in Japan after some disappointment with 358/2 Days from some fans of the series (But I’m still quite happy the story and gameplay turns out in the end.) with plans to get my on PSP, in which my brother has one but often uses it when in the army.

Three more thing before I forget. One, I won’t be blogging any series from the beginning till the end (I’ve learnt my lesson after Vampire Knight and World Destruction did to me.) and may just pop out anywhere as I like. Two, I need you guys to comment and mention the worst fathers (Sorry, no non-fictitious names of dads here.) in animation history (That includes video games and non-anime series, such as Avatar. Movies outside Japan are not allowed.), though I have some on my mind. I’ll tell you the reasons why I’m doing this later on when I come up with the post. Three and lastly, I’m having the urge to change my name in THAT, but I don’t know if it’s possible till I ask one of the THAT writer, so until then, sayonara.

Since April just won’t come fast enough, I’ve decided to start my own feature or two here so that I have something to blog until the new season rolls around. I also figured that I’d need something to fill the gaps in April while I wait for all the shows I’m interested in to come out. With that in mind, I’ve created the “Friday Ramble”.

The basic premise of the FR (as I’ll be referring to it out of laziness) is pretty straightforward. While browsing around the site, I noticed that there are some shows I watch (some of them quite popular) that were either never blogged, or have been dropped by their previous authors. Now, I don’t intend to pick these up and blog them seriously, but it wouldn’t hurt to drop a quick summary/opinion and a couple of screens for them would it? I didn’t think so.

So, in short, the FR is a bulk blog on a few ongoing series, and maybe a few series that I missed but have been checking out recently. Quick, to the point, but just enough to show you that I (kinda) care. This week, read on for: BLEACH, NARUTO, ROSARIO + VAMPIRE, and D.GRAY-MAN!

Bleach 164: Grimmjow Pees a Little

Obligatory Summary: Renji and Mr. Quincy continue their battle against Szayel. Renji goes all kamikaze to keep him distracted while Ishida does some crazy pentagram Quincy nonsense, suprising Szayel and causing him immense amounts of damage. Like usual, the heroes get cocky thinking they’ve won, but when the smoke clears, Szayel is still alive. Szayel then proceeds to chow down on one of his subordinates like he’s a good Subway sandwich, but instead of losing ten pounds, his wounds fully recover from all damage sustained up until this point. If I were him, I know there’d be a cocky “What now, bitch!?” running through my head. After he’s had his fill and recombed his hair, Szayel tells Renji and Ishida that he’s going to go change his clothes because it’d be embarrassing to fight in his torn up attire.

Meanwhile, Grimmjow brings Inoue to where Ulquiorra left Ichigo either dead or pretty damn close to it. Nel crawls out of the rubble of the fight and starts whining. Grimmjow hears my plea and tells Nel to STFU or he’ll blow her into tiny kibbles ‘n’ bits. Inoue has been direct by Grimmjow to use her powers to heal Ichigo because he wants him at 100% so he can kick Ichigo’s ass, and that he wants it done before Ulquiorra finds out what’s up. Right as he utters the words, Arrancar numero 4 shows up and Grimmjow shits his pants.

Afterthoughts: The animation this episode was great (see pic #5 above), and the battle between Renshida and Szayel was pretty intense. Inoue and Ichigo meet face to face again finally, and next week looks like it’ll start the showdown between Ichigo and Grimmjow. I’m loving this arc, but word is they’ll be going into a filler arc sometime next month. Anyone else think Inoue in the whole “I’m a captive” getup (see pic #3 above) is hawt? 4/5

Naruto Shippuuden 50: More of the usual

Episode Overview: Run run run run run run run. Everyone gets tired and takes a nap. Sai draws pictures in his book, homoeroticism is all over the place. Snake-man shows up to stop Sai from hitting on Naruto. Naruto gets mad and tells Sai to go find Sasuke while he “distracts” Snake-man. Lengthy flashback #1. Tree-guy and Sakura arrive to help Naruto distract the Snake-man. Intent on the destruction of emotionless clowns, Snake-man runs off after Sai. Sai finds Sasuke sleeping…oh yes, you know what happens next. Shake well and pour on top of lots of staring.

So here’s a list of things I didn’t see coming this week:

• Running…since when do characters in Naruto run? And for that long?
• Naruto struggling to stand after he trips. I’m mean, I know he probably can’t read or spell, but he should at least be able to pick himself up off the ground without help.
• Sakura saying something involving the words “But” and “Sasuke”. ie: “But I wish Sasuke was my lover! we have to find Sasuke right away!”
• Sai deciding that even though they were desperately trying to find Sasuke before Orochimaru appears, now would be a good time to get out his coloring book. Stay in the lines Sai! You wouldn’t want to disappoint the 0 people who love you!
• Naruto to use two new attacks: Shadow Clones and Rasengan…oh wait…

This wasn’t the worst Naruto episode I’ve ever seen by far, but let’s face it, it’s still Naruto. Why do I watch it? I love making fun of it…and when they do have an actual battle going, it’s pretty entertaining. 2/5

Rosario + Vampire 09 & 10: It finally gets pretty badass

I was looking around to see if some of these shows already had bloggers, and I noticed that Calawain was blogging R+V, but dropped it around episode 4. I can’t blame him for that, the only thing that kept me from dropping it was the fact that I couldn’t get enough of “Moka-san…Tsukune…Moka-san…Tsukune…Moka-san…Tsukune…Kappachu!” So I’ve sat it out through the formulaic episodes hoping that maybe, just maybe, the show will go somewhere. Enter episode 9…

If you dropped this show, or don’t know whether or not watch it…at least go watch episodes 9 and 10. Holy crap they were badass. The group takes a summer trip to the human world and encounters a crazy witch. Amongst the beach scenes and camping scenes, there’s a TON of action, everyone gets their moment to shine, and Moka doesn’t just 1-shot everything with a kick. The production value is insane, and…seriously, I was NOT expecting anything remotely on this level from this anime. 5/5

GO WATCH NOW! Warning: if you don’t appreciate made crazy action sequences or panty-shots, don’t waste your time.

D.Gray-Man 74: Lenalee is tasty

I’ll admit, there was a point in time where I dropped D.Gray-man…episode 25. How’d I make it this far? A combination of episode summaries and IRC downloads. I skipped episodes 26-51, reading the episode summaries from various sites so I wouldn’t be totally lost, then picked the show back up at episode 52, where the real action started to kick in. 52+ is like watching a whole new anime. Everyone powers up, the plot actually gets pretty serious, and people start dying left and right.

Right now, there’s a massive showdown going on between The Earl/Noah and the remaining exorcists in Edo (Tokyo). Allen has achieved 100% compatibility with his Innocence and finally arrived in Edo to throw down against the Earl. At long last, we get to see Allen actually do something in his Crowned Clown King form, and we no longer have to worry about Lavi trying to mack on Allen’s woman. Hah! 4/5

Wow, it’s amazing how long first posts take. Especially something like this where there are so many different ways to do things and so many different ideas to sort through. I know this post is long, but it’s made with the idea that you’ll only read the segments you’re interested in. If you read it all, that’s your fault.

Please, give any feedback you can. What you liked/didn’t like, which image style you liked best, etc. The Friday Ramble is an ongoing experiment, so expect constant change…it’s my way of working out new ideas for the regular posts I’ll be doing come Spring.