Short entries with first impressions about anime series, ova, and movies to give watchers an idea of what the anime is about or what it's like. Recommendations and youtube video samples at the end of each anime spotlight.
Please leave a comment if a video is broken/missing. Thank you!
For weeks Lucky Star episodes have been sitting in my Finished-and-ready-to-watch folder and I thought I had nothing to watch. HA!
This stuff's great. I'm practically glued to Konata. She's obviously the star, but there are some great characters that just come out of left field. I thought I'd be annoyed with the Lucky Channel after a few episodes, but now Akira is my 2nd favorite of the cast. Her assistant's presence just brings out the best in her. Watch it for wacky bits episode by episode. I even look forward to watching the super-peppy opening theme.
An anime I find myself looking forward to is Bokurano. These kids get themselves in a fix that they can't escape. Lives and the fate of the world are on the line as each kid prepares to leave a chair, a life and an entire world behind them.
The choices they make, their cruel fate, and their individual lives leading up to their last hours together give a depth to this anime that I haven't seen in a long time.
Check out the the opening song. I really dig it! It's Uninstall by Ishikawa Chiaki.
Escaflowne...boy pilots huge cool mecha, girl affects the future with her fortune telling
Mushi Uta...youths and the powers that they must cope with
Aquarion...mystical and strange opponents, mecha, and some eyebrow raising battle rituals
Tokyo Magnitude...two siblings must cling together when a 8.0 magnitude earthquakes hits Tokyo, bringing all they know crashing down on their heads (See Anime Spotlight)
Tried some new anime, a lot I didn't like. I usually don't write about anime that I don't like. I'm not much of a critic. I'd rather talk about anime that I did like. The only anime that is keeping me alive this season are:
Love Complex...I've already read all the scanlations available, and went ahead to read up to volume 8 in raws..kanzaiben is a tricky beast to read for me (See Anime Spotlight)
Emma...ah, trying my best not to peek ahead at the manga
Nodame Cantabile...love it. honey and clover replacement
The tale of Emma is continued as Victorian Romance Emma Second Act! This second installment of my favorite anime starring a gentle maid is giving us what we want: A new house, new companions, familiar locations, and of course--an old flame! (Jones-san, what have you let slip away last time!)
Watch the new developments started off with a new rendition of the previous opening song, with daily situations that reunite fans with their megane-wearing heroine and turning up the heat with a rival for ol' Jones-san.
Thanks to timely releases from iichan fansub group, I get to enjoy this series ever week.
Feel like watching a girl with a spear kick some butt? Seirei no Moribito may be what you're looking for in the feudal-anime-starved summer crop of anime.
She's on the last mission of her life and she is going to use all the tricks in her bag to get it done. The tricks being kicking butt, outsmarting an emperor and keeping a young prince out of tomorrow's obituaries. It isn't non-stop fighting, but I replay the sequences at least 6 times each because the action choreography is done so swiftly and well.
Just watch it. I watch the subs done by [A-Kraze]
Sometimes you just need to see some fighting.
Recommendations:
Nabari no Ou...great art, some action, dash of interclan politics
Sword of the Stranger...movie, youth naively hires a swordsman and battles and blood-baths follow
Tokyo Magnitude...a brother and sister find themselves at the center of a natural disaster separated from their parents and clinging to hope that they can make it home before aftershocks and aftermath destroy all they knew (See Anime Spotlight)
Thank you, Lovely Complex! I get my LabuCom fix from the [KissSub] fansubbing group. You have come to my rescue when I needed a super light and super funny anime this season. The two main characters fight so much that the sparks start to fly. And the accents--how I love hearing those accents. I think the voice actors are fun to listen to as well. So it's shoujo--who cares as long as it's good?
The story carries on with the main heroine "giant" (Koizumi) trying to get her feeling across to a dense "halfling" (Ootani) and crashing and burning until even her helpful friends begin to consider him lost cause. Some good situations malfunction when ill-timed mistakes are made and the couple's friendship turns rocky. You end up rooting for them because having them separated won't be as fun or as funny. Upbeat and full of dramatic and funny anime moments, I wish there were more of this series.
Enjoy the upbeat theme song and the ending song that isn't bad in its own right. It's a high school romance comedy that won't bore you.
Recommendations:
His and Her Circumstances...the thin line between love and hate is located on school grounds, comedy
It began as a few episodes of anime. Then it picked up speed by reading scanlated manga. Then it spiraled into reading raw scans of kansaiben until the final panel ended the story.
I just finished reading Lovely Complex Plus by Nakahara Aya, which are three chapters that include some prequel stories for the main two characters, Koizumi Risa and Ootani Atsushi, and also their fateful first meeting. And I mean FIRST.
I just hated for it to end, like any story I like. But it had to. O-WA-RI !
As of now, trying to track down raw scans of the first 5 volumes (ochibichan knows my weakness: irc), and watching the anime fansubbed by KissSubs.
I'm looking for scans of the Nakahara Aya's other works, too. Hopefully she'll release a new series soon.
Description on AnimeDB.net Claymore - Beheadings, gut-wrenching feasts (literally), mental supression of monstrous urges and big swords that not only cut even comrades but also make a nifty sleeping spot.
The story starts out simple enough, but with each new job we see the heroine Clare turn toward humankind for philosophical salvation from her own gruesome and eventual demise.
It gets better when the episodes give us a little taste of her origins and we get a break from that kid that tags behind her all the time. Will her story be written to match that of her mentor? How did she become a "silver-eyed witch" in the first place?
I've watched anime since 1996 starting with the Dagger of Kamui. Since then I've taken a few years of Japanese language, studied abroad in Japan and learned...that there is a lot of anime to watch.
Working!!
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*Working!!*'s opening theme brings back memories of Azumanga Daioh! and the
anime isn't far off in content.
If you are new to anime or japanese culture, ...
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