The second episode of Blassreiter that aired today introduces the show’s OP, which I quite like. I was hoping for something a bit more like Vjedogonia’s OP White Night, but repeated listening has made me realize that Blassreiter’s OP is kickass in its own way. The OP features a couple characters we haven’t seen yet and a giant army of the dead, which is always cool. (Let the Evil Dead references ensue). The OP also shows that Gerd will be around for a while, despite his rather fiery demise in this episode. I really want to know what’s up with the mysterious guy now, since he’s seemingly everywhere. He also has one incredibly badass bike. I’m really enjoying this youtube release thing. It’s great to know I can watch a show at a specific time every week instead of having to wait for fansubs. Wish the resolution was a bit higher, but it’s still fine. I hope other companies take up this plan soon. And, yes, the CG is still fine to me.
The trailer for Minori’s latest game ef - The Latter Tale came out recently and like every other Minori work features the beautiful animation of Makoto Shinkai. This one is just stunning to me, ever more so than the trailer for the first ef. ef - The Latter Tale is scheduled for release on May 30.
When comparing the broadcast version of Macross Frontier to the deculture edition from earlier, it’s hard to say if either version is superior to the other. I love the way the fight scene is synced with the music in the deculture edition, but the regular version gives some nice characterization with the added concert scenes. Either episode is a fine and solid introduction to Frontier. The one thing that really surprises me about MF is how well it does at creating a whole new world in the future. Few anime truly create a different world from the one we live in, but Macross takes the extra step of imagining the future both as a continuation of the present while keeping in any unpredictable innovation the future brings. It’s the small touches that help, like the ever present advertising and holograms, or the bizarre living cellphone. We can easily recognize these things from the present day, but MF gives them a whole new twist that really makes them seem futuristic and new.
Aside from the setting MF looks to be following the tried and true formula of Macross: love triangle x transforming mecha x aliens = win. Ranka definitely comes out ahead as the favorite girl, especially with that Nyan-Nyan dance. Sheryl is just, well, a bitch who’s really popular. Yeah, I really don’t like her right now. Alto may look bishounen, but he seems to have some pretty badass qualities. Just hope he’s a good pilot. There’s a ton of characters in the OP, so I think we’ll be seeing the world of MF fleshed out a lot more later on. The music, that is key for any macross, is very good, particularly Sheryl’s catchy tunes. The rest of the instrumentals sound good, and I like the one when the veritechs scramble for the first time. The CG is solid and extremely well done. It’s rare to see CG mecha done well, especially transformations, but MF hits it on the nail. The 2D animation jars with the 3D at some points, but it’s mostly smooth. That one friend of Alto’s constant blushing creeps me out, though. MF is doing a great job of getting me pumped for it, and I can’t wait to see what surprises it brings.
As has been mentioned numerous times already elsewhere, the first episode of the second season of Code Geass mirrors the very first episode perfectly, just with a lot more mysteries. Why does Lelouch have amnesia? Why is Rollo so gay? Why does Villeta need to degrade herself by becoming a gym teacher? How the hell did C.C. survive a long jump into the ocean? (short answer: the same way she survived everything else.) What does R2 mean anyways? Why does Kallen look so hot in a bunny outfit. Yes, the questions are endless, but I can still count on CG to keep somethings the same.
Lelouch has crazy expressions and arms with multiple elbows. C.C. is still enigmatically cool. The Emperor is awesome. Orange-kun gets the coolest scene in the OP. (speaking of the OP, like every other CG OP it will take me a while to get used to, but I’ll love it when I do. Lelouch riding a horse is just lolz worthy. And the Tristan is a cool design, the color scheme just sucks on it.) Suzaku is an uber-douchebag, and Pizza Hut still supports the Rebellion. Everything already feels familiar and comfortable, but with this being CG things won’t stay that way for long. Lelouch is already planning his comeback, and I can’t wait to see what CG’s comeback is either. I know everyone and their mother, uncle, and estranged cousin in prison will be blogging CG, and count me as one of them.
Now for something completely different. I checked out Kanokon hoping for some kind of fun, fanservicey show, and Kanokon definitely has fanservice of the raunchy variety. Too bad it’s spread too thin and everything else is the show is boring. Kouta is the most pipsqueak harem lead ever. The guy’s like a foot shorter than every other girl and lacks a single bone in his whole body. The main girl has no interesting qualities if you look past her chest, and every other girl is a stereotype we’ve seen before. There’s hints of something that may or may not be awesome having happened in the past, but this episode starts in media res, so anything that’s come before is lost on us now. I don’t think Kanokon is the kind of show I’m looking for at all. I need one that won’t put me to sleep.
Gonzo decided to broadcast two of its new shows, Blassreiter and Tower of Druaga, simultaneously in Japan and America, a highly unprecedented move I applaud them greatly for. Blassreiter, as I’ve mentioned before, is one of my most-anticipated shows for this season. Watching it in low quality on youtube did not hurt my enjoyment at all and the subs equal the best work of any fansub group, proving that simultaneous released are possible. On the show itself, it’s a very solid first episode, detailing the world of Blassreiter. The basic situation is that corpses have been reviving as mutated zombies capable of fusing with anything, and are kind of causing a ruckus. The XAT team, our main heroes, fight these zombies known as Demoniacs, while also having to deal with unique Demoniacs who hunt others of their own kind.
I absolutely love the designs of the Demoniacs, both mechanical and organic at the same, as to be expected of Niθ who did the designs. How they fuse with common items is pretty cool, and I liked the novelty of the motorcycle legs. The action scenes were also great; I love the camera angles and how the camera moves with the action. The CG isn’t exactly the best in the world, but I’ve seen worst. I’m hardly one to let CG stop me from enjoying a show. We don’t get much of the characters yet except Gerd, who will probably be killed shortly, though I’m surprised he transformed into one of the purple warriors from the trailer. Amanda already features some of that Niθ hotness. A lot of people will be harsh on Blassreiter for its CG, but I like it for mixing two of my favorite genres: pulp horror and henshin heroes. I look forward to fun times from it.
The other show Gonzo put online is Tower of Druaga, though it appears that the episode online is not actually the real story and just Gonzo messing with people’s heads. It kind of makes sense actually, since the beginning and ending of the episode are so different from the rest. Most of the show is spent on Hero Jil’s quest to kill the evil god Druaga and mocking RPG cliches along the way.
The constant “I’m going to be married when I return to town” line before a character died was just hilarious, especially when Jil was like “why are you telling me this?” Honestly, there are a ton of funny scenes here. The main heroine is raped by a tentacle monster and actually has to yell at the guys to stop oggling and rescue her. All the characters put down goggles before Jil’s special attack. Jil promising to marry both the Princess and Fatina. Druaga telling Jill he is Jil’s father and Fatina begging Jil to kill Druaga anyways cause she doesn’t want such an ugly father-in-law. And the greatest thing is the power up scene at the end that looks just like Gurren Lagann, the same kind of detailed animation. That was just awesomely hilarious. It’s highly doubtful the actual show will be like this. It’s probably more a generic action/adventure, which means I won’t watch it. But this episode was still fun even if it is just a one-shot thing.
I can confidently say that UBW is a definite step up from the Fate route, mainly because all the arcane little rules and weird pacing are not done here. With the groundwork out of the way UBW hits the road running. There’s almost a constant sense of urgency and battle, far better than the “fight Saber/learn magic from Tohsaka” days of Fate. With the storyline moving away from the anime things feel very fresh now, even if I did know what was going to happen. Shirou vs. Archer and Gilgamesh was a joy to finally read.
If there’s one thing UBW makes clear, it’s that Shirou is fucked up in the head. In Fate all one saw was his stubbornness, here we get even more of what makes him tick. His whole ideology is borrowed from someone else, he has no idea how to have fun at all, and even if he knows his path is going to lead to a miserable death he heads down it anyways. Guy’s even more messed up than Shiki. I’m not quite sure how Rin fell in love with him. Rin is awesome in this route, also. Full blown tsundere attitude here. Her freak out moments were the best.
But the real star of the route is Archer, in all his manly, twisted glory. Every single scene with him was awesome, and by the end he really is a complex character in his own right, much more so than any other character. He may be a grouchy, cynical, and sarcastic bastard, but he’s a true hero aka. he’s GAR, people! The main theme of the story - what is a hero? - continues in this route, being questioned every which way but not outright rejected. No, that’s what Heaven’s Feel is for. As for Heaven’s Feel, let’s just say the long wait begins anew. If it comes out in 2012 then we’ll know the prophecies are true and it is the end of the world. But at least we’ll have Heaven’s Feel to play, so everything will be A-ok.
The wild train wreck is finally over. I guess most would say that’s a good thing, but honestly I did enjoy watching Dragonaut. Does that mean Dragonaut was good? Hell no, it was an epic catastrophe of plot, characters, and pacing. It’s the definition of a bad anime. However, it became so bad it became good again. It’s so easy to laugh at Kazuki’s homoerotic passion and Gio’s hair metal outfit. The show is more a comedy than anything. I think Dragonaut is the kind of uniquely weird show that only a few people can stand, but for those few people it’s great.
I mean, just look at this! Gio starts fighting Ostrum with both of them on their hands and kicking with their feet like break dancers. For the final battle Gio glows gold and grows a giant sword from his forehead to ram passionately into the enemy dragon. I am not making this up.
The glow is all from the breasts. They require the sustenance of virgin souls to grow.
Aside from liking Dragonaut for being bad, there are a couple things I genially liked about it. As I’ve said before I’m a man of many sexual fetishes, and the character designs by Uno Makoto are right up my alley. Sure, Garnet’s breasts have a life of their own, and one could tell how high the animation budget was for a particular scene by seeing how skimpy Toa’s hot pants became, but designs like Toa and Sieglinde are still just pure sex. The music is also surprisingly good. There are many great instrumental tracks in this show, which is why it’s a shame I can’t find the soundtrack anywhere.
Hmm…delicious Sieglinde ass.Great way to end a series.
Dragonaut should be called a classic of bad anime for our own time. It’s only fitting for the brave and mocking at heart. I think one can tell if they’ll like Dragonaut by the end of the first episode. Hearing Kazuki yell “GIOOOOO!” that first time is all it takes.
