Weekend Anime Briefing
Posted by erin at May 28, 2003 04:31 PMIn case you were wondering what I did over the long weekend, the answer is, predictably, that I watched anime. I downloaded a few shows. And by a few I mean a lot. Here are some of them, in order of whether or not they were worth my time, from best to worst:
Wolf's Rain (watched 2 eps) - Wolf's Rain is by Bones Inc., an off-shoot studio of Sunrise, who brought us Cowboy Bebop. The character design is similar to Bebop, but newer and shinier. The show takes place in an apocalyptic future where a group of wolves who can disguise themselves as gay male humans are looking for the way to Paradise. Or something. I've only seen two episodes. There are also some vampires.
Oruchuban Ebichu (watched 8 eps) - From studio Gainax, Oruchuban Ebichu is the house-cleaning hamster! Ebichu tries to help out her master, but usually ends up getting smacked around and landing in a pool of her own blood. Half the time Ebichu deserves it. This is an erotic comedy that asks the viewer, "Why doesn't the Office Lady just buy a hamster cage?"
Hikaru No Go (watched 6 eps) - The Master of Go! You know the game "Go" with the little black and white stones? Like in the movie Pi? Well, in this series, a young boy is possessed by a 500 year old ghost who used to tutor the Emperor in the game of Go. The ghost's goal is to play "The Hand of God", which is not really explained in the series. The ten year old boy who becomes a puppet Go-Player for the ghost struggles to understand why other people are so goddamned serious about this game. At the end of each episode, there are little live-action Go-playing lessons that doesn't really help one understand the tournaments in the anime series. This show is really awesome for a sports genre anime, but I doubt it will ever be licensed for sale in the U.S., due to a distinct disinterest in Go.
The Glass Mask (watched 4 eps) - When Rick recommends a series, all of us are a little wary. However, Glass Mask turns out to be very good indeed! It's quite old, so you have to deal with weird character design and some slow segments, however, the plot moves right along. The protagonist wants to be an actress so badly that she's willing to endure anything, including physical pain and psychological abuse at the hands of her instructor! N. thinks that the series is a useful guide for young actors - but we all know he's crazy.
Macross Zero OVA (watched 1 eps) - Although very pretty, Macross Zero has all of it's dogfights animated in CG. They did a really good job with the CG, but it still doesn't look as impressive as the 2D animation in previous Macross series. The plot was somewhat interesting, but not extraordinary. I only watched the first episode.
Matantei Loki Ragnarok (watched 1 eps) - In this ridiculous (possibly CLAMP) show, Loki is re-born into the body of a 10-year-old boy. In a predictable turn of events, he becomes a supremely gay, ultra-rich detective who investigates paranormal events. Leave it to CLAMP to combine Norse mythology with Scooby Doo.
Panyo Panyo Digi Charat (watched 1 eps) - I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THIS SHOW. What happened to Rabbi-En-Rose and the comic book store? Who were the new cat-characters? And why were they costumed thieves of justice, a la Saint Tail? They rescued a dolphin, for some reason. But... I don't think they were on Earth.
Naruto - (watched 1 eps) - Naruto is about to graduate from some kind of ninja school in a remote tribe in some crazy fantasy version of Japan. He's an orphan trouble-maker, kind of like a ninja version of Dennis the Menace, only older. There are some demons, some laughs, some serious bits - you get the idea. It was second-tier anime, in that it lacked anything distinctly good or unique. I'd probably only watch another episode if I was extremely bored or got a high recommendation from someone else.
Get Backers - (watched 2 minutes) - Get Backers fits into the Saint Tail-genre of "good" thieves who steal things back (returning stolen items via theft) thereby setting things right. The character design in this show is ridiculous and extremely shiny. For some reason, everyone has super-long shirts... it didn't seem that interesting after 2 minutes.
Aqua Age, or "The Blue-Green Years" - (watched 1 eps) - This ought to be labeled "Bulk Anime" as the show seemed to be some kind of generic, store-brand shojou. The art design was unremarkable, the plot was painfully predictable, and the characters were boring. Not one person had anything remarkable or unusual about them. The plot centered around two girls entering Junior High. One has a crush on the other's childhood friend (oh gee, didn't see that coming) but the boy has a crush on the other girl, the one who hasn't hit puberty enough to think about guys "that way". The highlight of the show was the preview for the next episode, where the girl laments "I was taught that a triangle is the strongest shape - why can't we all just be friends together?"
Groove Adventure Rave - (watched 2 minutes) - Much to my surprise, this show has nothing to do with Raves. Instead, it's about some guy looking for a mystical gem. *Yawn*, yes, that character has bouncy breasts, like I give a shit - *yawn* - yeah, so I didn't watch that. It was more insufferable than freakin' Aqua Age.
The Piano Lesson - (watched 30 seconds) - This show had the hideous character design-disasters of Air Master. 30 seconds after the loathsome theme song nothing had happened yet, so I just stopped watching. The kicker? This file took the longest to download.
I've linked to the Bittorent sites I got these files from over there on the left.
Comments Individual Archive Index
May 28, 2003 09:56 PM, Rick said:
Warning: Glass Mask ends with a clip episode. How's that for suck?
May 31, 2003 02:13 AM, Eugene said:
Jeez! That's a lot of anime. I don't even see that much at cons. Why are you downloading anime? Don't you have enough to watch? Are you trying to tell me you need me to bring you more stuff?
Of the lot, I've seen Blue Green years, which is all right but heavy on the shoujo, and not necessarily well done. I've seen the first four episodes of Naruto, which is all right and fairly entertaining, but I think I can see it going the way of Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho. I have heard many good things about Wolf's Rain and Hikaru No Go, and who wouldn't want to watch an erotic hamster? Unfortunately I don't have the access, time, or wherewithal to download anime so I may never see some of these things. But that's probably a good thing. Why, I have plenty of stuff to watch.
And why oh why oh why if you were downloading stuff did you not try to watch more Haibane Renmei and Kogepan!!! For shame!!!
May 31, 2003 05:20 PM, Rick said:
>Don't you have enough to watch?
That's a pretty good question.
May 31, 2003 07:06 PM, Erin said:
Yes, I have plenty of stuff to watch!!
I started downloading anime because I can. My new laptop at work has Windows XP and something like a 40 gig drive. I can't download anime at home because I'm only running Mac OS 9.1, and I've only got 2 gigs left. I can't download anime during work, because of the firewall, but since I had to bring my laptop home last Friday night in order to work from home, I figured I'd make the best of it.
Also, Haibane Renmei is liscensed anime, so it's not up on anyone's sites anymore. They only keep unliscensed stuff up, for the most part.
June 25, 2003 03:13 PM, Faffner said:
where did you find ebichu?
April 1, 2004 05:44 PM, said:
smell my feet
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