The Millenium Walken
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- Posted: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:36:49 +0000
Is anybody else keeping up with it? I finally subscribed to Crunchyroll... I know, I should have done this years ago... And I'm trying to work myself down all the new pilot episodes.
I've seen...
Akame Ga Kill: Wow, I’m still recovering from this one... Okay, so a young and naive warrior named Tatsumi leaves his small vilalge for the much more affluent capital in order to raise money for his home. He’s a skilled fighter, but he has no idea how a larger community operates, and is willing to trust people rigfht off the bat, which works to amusing effect. After losing contact with his two childhood friends and traveling companions, his efforts to join the military go instantly wrong, which leads to him throwing all of his money at the first kind pair of breasts that offers to help him, ultimately screwing him over, leaving him broke and in need of shelter.
The series starts out funny and light-hearted at the outset, with a battle against an Earth Dragon showing us just how far the limited animation budget and inspired art design are going to work for us. Some of the jokes can be a bit on the lame side, and the expository information about how the capital is run is dumped by multiple characters with barely any set-up. It’s at the halfway point where the tone takes a sudden turn towards the grim-dark, and regardless of how you may feel about the unrelenting cruelty at play, you will not see it coming, and you will not forget about it anytime soon.
The writing’s kind of dumb and incompetant, and the way the first episode leaves off, there’s a bit of a blank slate to work with in the future... It’s difficult to see where this series will go, but I’m willing to see further.
Aldnoah Zero: I’ve never been a fan of mecha shows, so I’m reluctant to judge this series based on my first instinct alone, so I’ve actually watched this one twice. And yet, i still had to check Wikipedia to figure out what the hell was going on in it. Apparently in the seventies, we discovered an alien portal on the moon, and used it to colonize Mars, which led to a new civilization called the Vers empire, who seceeded from Earth.
The story takes place in 2014, but the moon was bloon up in an event called Angels Fall, in 1999. So yeah, it’s a story where most of the characters are teenagers, set 15 years after a mysterious disaster that’s been given a heavenly name. And that’s not it’s only allusion to Evangelion, either.
There’s a large number of characters, but it’s fairly obvious which one will become the lead. A disaster strikes while the princess of Vers is on a peace-making mission to Earth, and if you pay attention, it’s also fairly obvious who’s behind it.
I don’t know how to feel about this one... There’s a lot of potential down the road for this myriad of plot seeds and characters to intertwine and create something awesome, but I’m really more intrigued than engaged at this point.
Argevollen: Another mecha option, this anime drops us off into a war between two undefined countries. They fight with tanks and some decent-looking mechs. Tokimune is a hot-headed, altruistic young soldier who defies cautious orders in order to save the life of a random civillian... Because of course he is. He finds that civillian to be in possession of a revolutionary new mech that looks like every Gundam you’ve ever seen, because of course.
I’ve never been a mech fan, but at least Aldoah looked kind of interesting. It has some interesting ideas I’d like to see explored, and some characters I’d like to see further explored. It doesn’t look like everything ever made, ever. Argevollen, on the other hand... This is just flavorless and boring. I really don’t know what else to say about it. The set-up is weak, the execution is tepid, and the ending is dull. I wouldn’t hate to see another episode, but I wouldn’t be thrilled about it, either.
Blue Spring Ride: Three years ago, Futaba was stood up by the one and only boy in her school that she didn’t hate. Now, in high school, she’s reinvented herself as a treat guzzling, unkempt rude girl, because if she’s popular with the boys, all the other girls will hate her out of jealousy. The boy from her youth shows up again, but having suffered a divorce and an abrupt name-change, he’s grown cynical. He’s nice to her, but says cruel things... Oh, these mixed messages!
I’m going to have a lot of fun looking at this show. not watching, mind you, but looking at. Because it some really pretty, easy-on-the-eyes artwork going for it. The animation is kind of dull, which is par for the course in a shoujo anime. The characters are one note and flat, and the story just kind of meanders it’s way to a forced, idiotic conclusion. No stakes, no tension, just a somewhat pleasant tone and some pretty music to balance out the snails pace and flowery, sentimental melodrama..
Oh, and in case you haven’t picked up on this from my plot description, this could very well just be one more drop in the bottomless bucket of shows that borrow heavily from His and Her Circumstances, a show I already have trouble tolerating. It might not go that route, but at the same time, it might, so I just feel a little tentative about it for now.
And next, I'm watching DRAMAtical Murder. Oh joy.
How about you.
I've seen...
Akame Ga Kill: Wow, I’m still recovering from this one... Okay, so a young and naive warrior named Tatsumi leaves his small vilalge for the much more affluent capital in order to raise money for his home. He’s a skilled fighter, but he has no idea how a larger community operates, and is willing to trust people rigfht off the bat, which works to amusing effect. After losing contact with his two childhood friends and traveling companions, his efforts to join the military go instantly wrong, which leads to him throwing all of his money at the first kind pair of breasts that offers to help him, ultimately screwing him over, leaving him broke and in need of shelter.
The series starts out funny and light-hearted at the outset, with a battle against an Earth Dragon showing us just how far the limited animation budget and inspired art design are going to work for us. Some of the jokes can be a bit on the lame side, and the expository information about how the capital is run is dumped by multiple characters with barely any set-up. It’s at the halfway point where the tone takes a sudden turn towards the grim-dark, and regardless of how you may feel about the unrelenting cruelty at play, you will not see it coming, and you will not forget about it anytime soon.
The writing’s kind of dumb and incompetant, and the way the first episode leaves off, there’s a bit of a blank slate to work with in the future... It’s difficult to see where this series will go, but I’m willing to see further.
Aldnoah Zero: I’ve never been a fan of mecha shows, so I’m reluctant to judge this series based on my first instinct alone, so I’ve actually watched this one twice. And yet, i still had to check Wikipedia to figure out what the hell was going on in it. Apparently in the seventies, we discovered an alien portal on the moon, and used it to colonize Mars, which led to a new civilization called the Vers empire, who seceeded from Earth.
The story takes place in 2014, but the moon was bloon up in an event called Angels Fall, in 1999. So yeah, it’s a story where most of the characters are teenagers, set 15 years after a mysterious disaster that’s been given a heavenly name. And that’s not it’s only allusion to Evangelion, either.
There’s a large number of characters, but it’s fairly obvious which one will become the lead. A disaster strikes while the princess of Vers is on a peace-making mission to Earth, and if you pay attention, it’s also fairly obvious who’s behind it.
I don’t know how to feel about this one... There’s a lot of potential down the road for this myriad of plot seeds and characters to intertwine and create something awesome, but I’m really more intrigued than engaged at this point.
Argevollen: Another mecha option, this anime drops us off into a war between two undefined countries. They fight with tanks and some decent-looking mechs. Tokimune is a hot-headed, altruistic young soldier who defies cautious orders in order to save the life of a random civillian... Because of course he is. He finds that civillian to be in possession of a revolutionary new mech that looks like every Gundam you’ve ever seen, because of course.
I’ve never been a mech fan, but at least Aldoah looked kind of interesting. It has some interesting ideas I’d like to see explored, and some characters I’d like to see further explored. It doesn’t look like everything ever made, ever. Argevollen, on the other hand... This is just flavorless and boring. I really don’t know what else to say about it. The set-up is weak, the execution is tepid, and the ending is dull. I wouldn’t hate to see another episode, but I wouldn’t be thrilled about it, either.
Blue Spring Ride: Three years ago, Futaba was stood up by the one and only boy in her school that she didn’t hate. Now, in high school, she’s reinvented herself as a treat guzzling, unkempt rude girl, because if she’s popular with the boys, all the other girls will hate her out of jealousy. The boy from her youth shows up again, but having suffered a divorce and an abrupt name-change, he’s grown cynical. He’s nice to her, but says cruel things... Oh, these mixed messages!
I’m going to have a lot of fun looking at this show. not watching, mind you, but looking at. Because it some really pretty, easy-on-the-eyes artwork going for it. The animation is kind of dull, which is par for the course in a shoujo anime. The characters are one note and flat, and the story just kind of meanders it’s way to a forced, idiotic conclusion. No stakes, no tension, just a somewhat pleasant tone and some pretty music to balance out the snails pace and flowery, sentimental melodrama..
Oh, and in case you haven’t picked up on this from my plot description, this could very well just be one more drop in the bottomless bucket of shows that borrow heavily from His and Her Circumstances, a show I already have trouble tolerating. It might not go that route, but at the same time, it might, so I just feel a little tentative about it for now.
And next, I'm watching DRAMAtical Murder. Oh joy.
How about you.
