Soul Eater

Anyone who is at all familiar with my blog knows that I am an avid (read rabid) fanboy of Studio BONES.  I don’t think I’ve seen any project they’ve worked on that I haven’t liked or loved.  Their original work is top notch and their adaptations are fantastic without drifting into the dangerous waters of ongoing shows like Naruto or Bleach.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that I love Soul Eater.  What’s not to love?  It’s a compelling adventure in the vein of Fullmetal Alchemist with some excellent characters and, as a bonus, some really hilarious bits of wacky comedy.  It is Studio BONES so you know the animation is great.  The music keeps pace with the action, but also fills in the rest of the scenes really well.  And the concept is just wonderful, courtesy of Manga-ka Okubo Atsushi.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: First Impressions

First, NO IT ISN’T MAHOU SHOUJO MADOKA MAGICA!  Twits.  Puella Magi is a Latin bastardization of the phrase magical girl.  This does not mean you get to translate it to Mahou Shoujo.  It doesn’t matter that they ‘say’ Mahou Shoujo in the series.  It doesn’t matter that the phrase Puella Magi is grammatical gibberish (it could mean “Girl, to a greater extent”).  The official romanization is Puella Magi, so that’s what it should be called.  /rant

There’s a lot of buzz around this show, mostly because its a Magical Girl show, and there are some pretty basic tenants of that genre that Madoka Magica just tosses out the window.  The show is dark.  Not the pitch black of Gantz or Elfen Lied, but still pretty dark.  The series is quick hit you over the head with it’s somewhat bleak outlook on the lives of its protagonists.  But I’m not convinced that it is as dark as the bloggers are making it out to be.

Broken Blade: First Impressions

The parallels that can be drawn between Gundam and Broken Blade (AKA Break Blade, the phonetic pronunciation of the title by several of the characters) are obvious.  Giant Mechs, world on the verge of total war and a mysterious young man with the ability to pilot a unique weapon against overwhelming odds.  If you’ve seen it, Turn-A Gundam jumps immediately to mind, but the connections are pretty universal.

Star Driver: First Impressions

There’s probably a reason I really enjoy the series that [gg] fansub.  They have an eye for the truly fabulous.  Which is not to say that I’ve loved everything they’ve chosen to work on, only that Star Driver is fabulous.

I’m not sure where the Japanese get some of these ideas.  A boy washes ashore on a somewhat mysterious island because he tried to swim there (several miles at least) rather than taking the convenient ferry.  He enrolls in the local school and promptly gets involved in the machinations of the Order of the Glittering Cross (possibly Glittering Star Crusade) who are trying to unleash the monstrously powerful Cybodies from their prison on the island.

Trigun

There are a small number of works in any body of art that are considered not only Classics, representing the best the art form has to offer, presented in such a way as to make it relevant to future generations, but also seminal works.  These pieces go on to define the way we think about art in some very fundamental ways.  You can all name the examples.  It doesn’t matter if you have no education whatsoever, these pieces have transcended into the cultural zeitgeist and are referenced as often by pop culture as they are by text books.  For anime, there is no doubt that Trigun is one of these profoundly affective works.

Eden of the East

I watched Eden of the East a while back when it was first airing in Japan but never really go around to reviewing it for various reasons.  Now that’s its been released in the US, I had the good luck to acquire a copy of the Blu-Ray for practicably nothing.  Score!

Eden is a great show.  Hands down.  It is an incredibly strong entry no matter what sort of show you’re interested in.  The basic collaboration of Director Kenji Kamiyama (GitS:SAC, Moribito) and character designer Chika Umino (Honey and Clover) generated cross genre appeal from the very outset of the project.  And with the legendary Production I.G. behind the animation, the show was a golden child.

Serial Experiments Lain

Lain opens with the somewhat shocking imagery of a school girl stumbling along the nighttime streets of Japan.  Strange phrases flash across a psychedelic color field and the schoolgirl is suddenly hanging off the balcony of a tall building, a smile on her face.  A moment later, she falls.  Hard cut to a suburban neighborhood in stark white and black, the hum of powerlines can be heard.  Enter Lain, a quiet girl on her way to school, listening to something only she can hear.

PROJECT!

As much free time as I had in college, I’m finding myself with even more now that I’m a 9-5 work minion.  And that means,

RETURN OF THE ZOMBIE BLOGGER!  Pt. 4 This Time it’s FABULOUS!

So I’m starting a major project where I go back and re-watch all of my collection and do a proper review for everything.  I’m starting with my newly acquired replacement copy of Serial Experiments Lain and going up from there.  With any luck I’ll be dropping at least one post a week and sometimes two.  Wish me luck.

Or don’t, ’cause you stopped checking this place MONTHS ago.  Sorry.

Angel Beats!

A friend of mine reminded me that I should probably be working on my summer classes instead of spending all my free time watching Buffy and NCIS.  Or, more accurately, he asked me if I had watched Angel Beats! and I realized that I hadn’t watched anything new or interesting in more than a month.  Heroman is dull and I only watch it out of Studio BONES loyalty.  Full Metal Alchemist reached its somewhat obvious, but still satisfying conclusion.  And there really hasn’t been anything worth watching except for my new shiny DVDs of The Skull Man.  So… I’m only watching BONES shows.

So, instead of working on my giant, 20 page essay that was due on Friday, I downloaded the recently finished Angel Beats!.  The show was a pleasant surprise on several levels.  Strong production values support  an unexpectedly deep story that is only slightly derivative of Haruhi.  And it was a Key show with characters whose eyes are terrifyingly empty.

Nanoha: Complete Review

I have been spending waaaay too much time enjoying the guilty pleasure that Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has become.  A magical girl show written for men, with just the right balance of touching, brutal and awesome to keep any viewer captivated and happy.  Entertaining, meaningful and thoroughly delightful, the Nanoha serial has set a new standard of excellence that every other magical girl show should aspire to.

The first season is probably the worst, primarily by dent of its relatively low production values and somewhat sudden storyline.  The show asks the viewer to take for granted something that will become a critical aspect of Nanoha’s character.  Namely, her bizarre ability to make people she utterly crushes change sides.  This is not an uncommon trope in anime, but Nanoha abuses it to the extreme.  It’s part of her charm, but viewers of the first season don’t really realize it until after it’s made the second story arc extremely awkward.