Friday, July 2, 2010

Summer anime part 1

I normally only sample a couple of anime a season, and then don't finish watching those.
But this season I have discovered that watching this shit on Himawari Douga improves it immensely. Having several thousand Japanese otaku watch the thing and mock the shit out of it can make a certain level of garbage palatable.

Ookami and the Seven Counts of Plagiarism:
I think this was supposed to be the big name light novel adaption, and it seems to be hitting that audience. Who needs original ideas when you carefully cut and paste proven character types from other series wholesale? If this was at all self-aware it would be a parody, a sort of light novel Murder by Death, but it doesn't really seem to know how derivative it is. The tumbling sequence was nicely animated, but the show is mostly a testament to how willing people are to respond to even bad shows as long as they follow the formula.

Amagami SS:
Five girls share one character design! And it isn't a good one.

Legend of a Legendary Hero:
Wow, it's like the 90s again, only shit. I remember when you still had to beat people with a stick for trying to pretend Lodoss was good, and Slayers seemed like a breath of fresh air at the time. It didn't age well. So a series that basically is a giant rip-off of Slayers with less personalities, even more one-note gags, a director who can't film action, and a script that thinks lurching between boring heroics and the kingdom of the bishonen will do anything but prevent either of them from being interesting...well, I'm amazed anyone finished the thing.

Mitsudomoe:
I watched the whole thing after they busted out the Battle Royale music early on, but there was very little else of note. I suppose they think they're fighting the lolikon menace by making everybody fat? Or are they catering to the chubby chaser pedophiles?

Shukufuku no Campanella:
Suddenly I found myself longing for the thrills and excitement of Legend of the Legendary Hero. I literally stopped listening to the opening monologue halfway through, and was equally unable to make it through any further dialogue without my brain just refusing to process any more language. When entire conversations receive the presentation of a budget rpg -- character picture moves in from the right, other character picture moves in from the left, alternate -- you know this is made by people who have given up on life.

Kuroshitsuji 2:
Fucking bad ass. I had no knowledge of the original at all, but the kid stabbing his maid's eye out with a finger for looking at him was the most over the top shit since Elfen Lied, and following that immediately with the butler tap dancing on the balcony to Mozart before swinging on a chandelier, yanking the carpet out from under the table so it flew into the air, and then setting it while wall running around the walls of the room pretty much sold me for life. Apparently it is actually about two other characters who are far more boring, which is a shame. I dug this enough to go back and watch the first season, which has just enough crazy to hold my attention, but nothing that even came close to the sequel's level of batshit. Hopefully the sequel keeps this shit up. It would be a shame to regress immediately.

5 comments:

  1. To answer your Mitsudomoe question, as a lolicon, I find the characters highly attractive. So yeah, we're out there.

    I never would have expected Kuroshitsuji to have that much worth, but fuck what you described got my dick wet, so I'll be checking that shit out. I heard the first season was really disappointing though, so maybe I'll skip it.

    I have a crazy high tolerance for generic light novel adaptions, and I'm obsessed with the 'coodere' archetype, so I'll be following Ookami-san, but it doesn't seem nearly as good as the shows it's aping (Index/Railgun most prominently).

    I'm with you on all the others - shit.

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  2. Just wanted to say that I love Slayers (especially Next) but your comment said it doesn't have the personalities Slayers had.
    So, as a Slayers fan, should I give it a shot?

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  3. Densetsu novel readers seem to think the first episode did a terrible job at introducing what the novels are about, so maybe wait for episode two? If you still like not particularly ambitious fantasy comedies, then probably worth a shot.

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  4. Thanks, I guess I will give it a shot once it's over and more reviews will come out (or just if someone will say I will like it)
    It looks like this season I will just watch older things that I should have watched a long time ago but I didn't (recently watched Gunbuster)

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  5. Well, the three shows I was looking forward to this year haven't aired yet.
    I was just bored enough this weekend to actually go try the stuff I usually ignore. And doing so got me an extra show to watch, so I got to call it a win.

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