Month: May 2008

Special Screening: Death Note the Movie, I needs more L

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So, all around the country, for two special nights, Death Note the live-action movie was playing in theaters. I was not about to miss this as I quite enjoyed this movie and its sequel. I love the chance to see movies on the big screen, I always wish I could do it more often. But in NYC you pay 10-11 dollars to see a movie…I swear. So I only bust out that hard earned cash for special moments, this was one of them.

I too like to see anime movies in the theaters as well. I would really like to see a good comedy, as good comedies are only enhanced by an audience. Though I don’t know of any comedy anime that would be popular enough for their movies to be playing in American theaters. I suppose that I will take what I can get. I know they are going to be showing the Bleach movie soon as well. The dub alone will keep Narutaki away but I might just go out of random curiosity, since I’m one of the few people who has not seen it. No amount of loyalty to anime fandom will make me pay money to watch a Naruto movie though. I would not so secretly like to see the Kara no Kyoukai movies in theaters but there are going to seven of them and that it’s not popular in the U.S. so that makes it almost impossible. I am also sure that the Evangelion movies would be simply amazing on the big screen but someone has to shell out some serious cash before that will ever happen.

We saw the film, along with other friends, at the Regal Cinema at Union Square. We pre-ordered our tickets but I didn’t see any big line for the event. Also, I noted before we went up (maybe 15 minutes before show time) that the event had yet to sell out. The theater was pretty crowded though and our seats were forced to near the front. I have some friends in Indianapolis and they said their theater was pretty crowded, too. So I’ll assume it was pretty much the same all over.

It was crowded enough that they will hopefully do something like this again. It was not enough to have it to play for several weeks but I think it’s enough to get two showing for those who want them.

Unlike the manga and anime Death Note the movie starts slightly in medias res. The movie begins with criminals all over the word suddenly dying of heart attacks. Law enforcement agents around the world are baffled as to who is doing the killing and how exactly they are doing it. It turns out that they are being performed by Light Yagami a young college student you uses a Shinigami’s magical note book to kill people. When Light writes anyones’ name in the book, while think about their face, the person who’s name he writes dies. As the Japanese police force start their investigations, they are approached by L the world’s greatest detective who has some theories about these murders. The Japanese form a task force with L at the helm to try and solve the mystery of the deaths.

I quite liked the pacing of the movie. It kept the wonderful cat and mouse that drew me into the original manga. We got a lot of the defining moments from the beginning of the story, like: the L TV broadcast, the bus scene, all the Raye scenes really, and the chips. There were new additions as well, especially the twist at the end which is completely new and you really see the director moving things to his own needs at that point. But I liked that, I am happy with the way he is telling this lengthy story in a just a few short hours. Also the Death Note manga is extremely word heavy and I was glad to see they didn’t bring that to the movie, not tons of internal monologues or any such thing. You were really able to read the characters emotions form the actors.

I think you just like the fact that Misa Misa was kept to a minimum in this movie. When you only have two movies to adapt a 12 book series, I suppose it helps that several arcs in the manga are weaker than others and can mostly be axed out with no problem. The director certainly knew how to show and not tell which helped cut down on the need for lengthy mental dialogues, while still showing the back and forth between people trying to outwit each other. I also like that Naomi Misora was given a little more time in the movie. I had always wished she stuck around longer in the manga.

Fujiwara Tatsuya comes out of the gate being the charming and intelligent, young man with a god complex, Light Yagami. It is always engrossing to know what Light is up to unbeknownst to the rest of the characters (except possibly L) and realize how cunning his interactions with them are. After Light falls into L’s first trap, he wises up and starts to push the envelope of how far one can think ahead. Fujiwara takes acting with his CG partner, Ryuk, in stride and never over acts to compensate. However, Ryuk comes off as much more comic like than I felt in the original story. Which added some downright laugh out loud audience moments.

I think everyone noticed that really odd scene where they used a cardboard cutout instead of CG to make Ryuk’s shadow. It was an interesting bit on unintentional comedy. I don’t think they played up Ryuk’s comedic aspects as much as minimized the creepy/scary moments. Oh and I think you have forgotten a most important fact: Light’s father is played by none of than Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef. I admit it’s not easy to see, especially when at no point in the movie does he dramatically bite into a pepper or wear a flashy suit.

I was quite amused and couldn’t help getting caught up with the crowd when L appeared on the screen; the theater went into applause. Kenichi Matsuyama really looks the part of L and once he opens his mouth he solidifies his rendition of the eccentric, but brilliant, detective. L’s character is very much in tune with his manga counter-part, he thinks like no one else and is able to get results, albeit not always by ethical means. And as he sat on the couch making pastry-kebabs I knew the character was spot on.

From what I can tell, L seems to be the most popular character in Death Note so they better have picked a good actor for him. I was happy with L as well. I think Kenichi put in the right combination of playful, creepy, eccentric, and amazingly brilliant to his portrayal of the world famous detective.

I was really surprised it was dubbed, really wasn’t expecting that. Because as most people can attest, possibly from watching some swanky kung-fu movies, dubbing real people is a whole different ball game than dubbing animation. It is just plain more difficult. This was probably done due to its popularity on Adult Swim. However, the most important ones were decently done. Though I’d be lying by saying it was great and preferable. Light and L’s voicing was close to their characters’ original sound at least and most of the time they didn’t speak like William Shatner. I can’t say the same for the rest of the cast. I can also blame the major amount of chuckling to the dub, too. I am glad to have seen it fan-subbed first. And what I couldn’t understand was the lack of subtitles for cell phone messages, newspapers, etc it was just plain lazy.

Odd that you mention swanky kung-fu movies because the dub really does come off as an old Shaw Brothers movie dub at times. I half expected Light to comment on the weakness of L’s crane style investigation-fu at the end of the movie. All the live action Japanese movies and TV dramas we have watched together have been subbed so I wonder if it’s just the way most live action movies come off or is this movie weaker than others? I have noticed for some reason when they play Japanese movies, be it live action or anime, they tend to play them without the option for subtitled signs in theaters. Most of the time you can get away with it but there are far too many scenes where plot was being conveyed by text for it to be anything less than very silly.

The bonus, a making-of featurette after the movie, was mundane at best. There were no real insights, a very brief interview with the director, and mostly us seeing scenes from the movie but with all the equipment in the shots. The only nice thing was the preview for Death Note: The Last Name. I would guess that Viz plans to release that theatrically in a similar manner. When is yet to be determined.

Other than getting a laugh out of a few of the directors odd comments I don’t think we got any grand insight into the movies though the featurette. It was nice to have a little extra that you did not get with the fan-sub but I’m sure Narutaki just wanted more Kenichi Matsuyama running around as L. I suppose that explains why L: Change the WorLd and Death Note: Another Note got made in the first place. The world just needs more L.

Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, We mustn’t runaway!

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Narutaki and I spent a good deal of time wondering if we should even attempt this article. Neon Genesis Evangelion is such a loaded beast that writing anything directly related to it is a dangerous subject. You can talk about any of the alternate universe or spin off materials like Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days or Girlfriend of Steel with little fear because they are so removed from the original work that they are safe. The problem is this remake movie is just as touchy a subject as the original series. Any praise, scorn, criticism, or analysis is just as loaded as it would have been for the original.

Evangelion is a show that will never go away, never be forgotten. I can still remember my dad bring home a couple of VHS tapes of it for me, so many years ago, and immediately popping them in. I didn’t know what that series was going to be with just those first four episodes but I knew that I wanted to find out. Anything as big as Eva is going to cause endless discussion. Sometimes you don’t even want to touch it with a thirty-nine and a half-foot pole but the new movies seemed like a nice place to dive into the danger zone.

I saw the first four episodes of Evangelion thanks to the always amazing King of Players Benjamin McGraw. I remember thinking it was interesting but I did not finish the series until years later. It’s odd. I never have had the usual two reactions to Evangelion. I did not embrace it like chocolate covered love nor rejected it like poison coated manure. While I have always thought Evangelion was interesting I was never fanatical about it to any extreme.

We here at Reverse Thieves show no fear because fear is the mind killer. We watched a whole episode of Clannad and I think we both came out of that as stronger people. Okay, Narutaki might cry himself to sleep at night but he is a stronger man who cries himself to sleep at night. Plus I cried myself to sleep even before I watched Clannad. We shall surely only win at life more than usual because of this this article.

We are going to attempt (ATTEMPT) to talk about this movie as if we haven’t seen the original work it is based on. This is somewhat easier for me as far as plot goes since I tend to forget just about every thing anyway. But what I don’t forget is how a series makes me feel, what characters I connected with, and how I desperately waited to see what would happen next. To me these are the harder things to disconnect from.

In the world of Evangelion, giant mysterious creatures named Angels have been attacking the earth after a gigantic environmental disaster and the called the Second Impact killed much of the world’s population. Shinji Ikari has suddenly been called my his estranged father to Tokyo-3. Instead of a reunion he gets a mission: to pilot a giant robot to fight the Angels. Not surprisingly he is reluctant to do so. After being strong armed into piloting the robot Shinji eventually settles into his role with the assistance of his fellow pilot Rei Ayanami and his guardian and superior Misato Katsuragi.

Both the Angels and Evangelions (the giant robots) have mysterious natures. We also have no real knowledge why these attacks are going on or why they need Shinji of all people. NERV, the organization behind creating the Evas, is shadow and does not seem very upfront about their motives. I certainly don’t think of them as the good guys right off the bat, but that is a huge part of the series…the gray factor and the unknown.

I think the mysteries and the pacing of their reveals has always been one of the major selling points of the series. They throw you into the middle of everything and no one seems to be in any big rush to tell him any more than the bare minimum. At the end of the movie we has a conclusion but no real answers. Most of this has to do with the fact that the first movie is the opening act. It is supposed to lure you in with mysteries, tell a complete story arc that draws you in, make you care about the characters involved, and then leave you wanting more. I think it succeeds in this respect.

Shinji Ikari comes off a very mild and shy. At 14 he is thrust into the responsibility of protecting a city full of innocent people. His father uses him quite openly and the first time he gets into a robot it is out of guilt for another injured pilot. However, as the movie goes on we see him time and time again step-up to the plate. While understandably reluctant, once he feels the direness of the situation he puts up quite a fight. In fact, the last battle in the movie was so totally awesome and suspenseful that when it was all over I almost wanted to cheer. Shinji’s life outside of NERV is filled with the uncertainty of youth combined with burden of his responsibilities to the people around him. Shinji tends to internalize his pain. His relationship with Misato, a woman who sort of takes him in, is one of the most interesting as they are both discovering what the word family means.

I think that we would be remiss is forgetting to mention that Shinji does spend a good deal of the movie trying to run away from his responsibilities no matter how understandable running away might be. He has to be guilt tripped into piloting the Eva each time. He also runs away from NERV for several days until they recapture him when they need him again. Shinji is clearly not the hotblooded robot pilot that loves piloting his mecha nor is he the icy cold ace pilot who always does what needs to be done without a second thought. He is clearly an awkward and scared boy who has been thrust into an overwhelming and dangerous position with no training or preparation. He eventually does what is need to be done every time but he never seem comfortable or willing to pilot the Eva until the end of the movie. Even then he only seems to have a beginning of acceptance of his role as Eva pilot.

The entire cast is sort of an enigma that we only get glimpses of their true motives. Anyone except Shinji, since he is the main character we spend a lot of time with him, feels like there is so much going on below the surface. Who they are can change from one situation to the next. This really brings the most ominous feel to the movie, it is done subtlety however. You feel it as a viewer, nothing is as it seems and who are all of these people caught up in it? Once again, since this is the first film in a series, it brings a lot of flavor and suspense for the coming movies.

I think you’re forgetting one of the more iconic characters in anime history. The Rei. She mainly acts as a stark contrast to Shinji’s attitude while also occasionally being his motivation. Rei seems to be unthinkingly loyal and dedicated to being a Eva pilot. No matter how injured she is, no matter what the danger is in, she is ready to pilot her Eva. It mostly seems that she does it because of a machine like personality but we get hints that is due to a loyalty and even love for Gendo. Shinji surely would have never piloted the Eva the first time if it where not for a half dead Rei and she is instrumental to getting him to fight against the third angel.

I didn’t forget, I just avoided. Rei is this paradox of helplessness and killer instinct. She is very husk like to me; as though there is something ticking in there, but we rarely see it. In fact, we see it when she is blindly defending Gendo of all people. But I like that, the relationships of everyone are complex and we as the audience just get the beginnings of them.

Gendo. We don’t really get much insight into him but they are fairly good at presenting him as a cold and even vile person without making him a snarling villain. He is obviously a man with a grand plan and will sacrifice anything and any one to get to that goal. We mostly see an emotionally detached manipulator who moves all the characters including his own son like chess pieces. Gendo’s famous pose with his hands clasped together under his nose will forever be the mark of the manipulator.

Misato acts as both a sexy older sister and a hard commanding officer to Shinji. In many was she is the gentle and warm parental figure in his life while also being the harsh tough loving figure as well.

The battles are well-paced with intense action and plenty of suspense. All of the battles’ big factor is the will he won’t he with Shinji. You really don’t know what he is going to do, but when he does it something surprising usually happens. I can see this getting annoying but at this point it wasn’t. This animation quality is really working itself in these scenes, of which there are many. If you are anything like me, I have to go back to the original to really see the difference in animation; except for the final battle. Wow, what a difference!

I think the battles are very well done and now take advantage of the clearly larger budget and more modern animation techniques of the time. The fight are usually pretty dramatic and tense. I think the fact that you don’t know what Shinji is going to do keeps the fights interesting because you know he can’t just whip out his equivalent of Form Blazing Sword and win. Half the battle is Shinji verse himself and half the battle is Shinji trying to figure out how to fight the angel. Anyone not impressed by the updated battle against Ramiel is just one jaded human being.

The use of music to bring tone to the movie is very well done. It has a modern classical feel. The original TV series had great music and it is nice to see that tradition continued into the movies. Also is has a killer ending song Beautiful World by Utada Hikaru which is more in the realm of things I know about. It actually creates great juxtaposition between the things happening in the movie and what the song is saying. Sort of like the contradiction of NERV’s slogan, “God is in his heaven, all is right with the world.”

I felt like the ending song was almost a love song to Shinji but maybe that is just me. Maybe it is nothing more than a random song thrown in on the end because people like Utada Hikaru and she has undoubtedly drawn a little more attention to the project by doing the end theme but I want to think that it is more than that. I feel the lines about “What a beautiful boy. Yet, you are unable to see your own beauty.” just strike me as being about Shinji. I might just be reading into things that are not there but I would like to think that I might have something here. Who knows? Maybe Utada Hikaru is a huge Shinji fan girl reading all the Shinji X Kaworu doujinshi she can get her hands on.

Not surprisingly since this is a series of movies, we are left with more questions than answers. In fact a lot of questions! Especially since a lot of things that aren’t introduced until much later in the original are mentioned or shown in this first quarter.

I’m am curious to show this movie to anyone who did not see the original TV series. I followed along with the plot quite easily but I already saw the original. However, the first six episodes of the TV series are simpler than the later episodes. They don’t really have much of the trippy and hard to follow storyline that the last quarter of the series contains. Despite this I wonder if the movie is just well written or was I filling in any holes with my knowledge of the TV series and assorted surrounding works. Do you gentle readers know of any Eva virgins that have only watched the first movie? What did they think of it?

I doubt if anyone outside of Sony, Warner Brothers, or another major movie studio can afford to license this considering the current state of the anime industry. The End of Evangelion movies are famous for being insanely expensive. I remember hearing that someone at ADV said the could licensed 10 TV series for the asking price of End of Evangelion. I can’t see this movie being any less expensive. So unless one of the major U.S. studio decides to fork over the cash for Evangelion, I assume the only way we would get this movie is if Gainax decides to release it themselves. Maybe that is what Gainax is going to be sending people to fanime to announce.

I have no doubt that everyone in the anime industry would sell pieces of their body for this license but it wouldn’t make a difference. Because no one is going to get their hands on it. They just can’t afford it. I mean ADV is totally out. They couldn’t even afford to hang on to the license for Gurren Lagaan (another Gainax title). And unless the people at AnimEigo feel like it, which I don’t think they do, no one else has enough capital to fund such an endeavor. Eva made record sales in the the theaters and also with its recent DVD release. I want it, but I have my doubts.

It does not matter if you love it, hate it, or are quite indifferent. You cannot deny that its impact on the whole of anime is significant. Well, you can ignore Evangelion but it is sort of foolish. It would be like deliberately ignoring the works of Osamu Tezuka or Hayao Miyazaki. Any legitimate anime scholar must watch it at least once to understand it’s impact on the industry. It basically created a whole new genre of mecha anime. It is also the target of countless parody and homage. There is still as much Evangelion merchandise being sold for a 25 year old show as there would be of an anime that is currently playing on TV.

UPDATE: Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone is now licensed by Funimation!

Spring Falls Out: Spring 2008 Anime Guide

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April showers bring May flowers and new anime series. There is no way that Narutaki and I can watch every new anime series coming out this season but we will try to hit up whatever looks interesting and report back to you our loyal readers on what is worth watching this spring. Plus, I think we are going to skip all the horrible ohwhenwillthehurtingend shows. Speaking of which it does seem this spring the moe choice is shows with fox spirit girls. I guess since Kamen no Maid Guy came out no one else dared make a maid anime.

Since they have taken my Gundam 00 away and my Hayate I am looking for all new shows to start watching! This is an exciting and sometimes tedious task. I don’t want to go too much into what the shows are actually about, those things are easily looked up. We are just going to be giving our gut reactions to a whole slue of stuff and beware that we have only watched the first episode of most of this.

Bus Gamer
I downloaded this because the short reviews I saw said it was about bad dudes, doing bad things with awesome fights. Okay, what were those people watching? It couldn’t have been the first episode of this seriously poor anime. The fight that happens at the end, I wouldn’t have even called a fight! It was like random thugs and the dude just came up behind them and hit them with a pipe. That is not a fight!! Also they spent way too much time trying to develope these three guys and the plot. No action occurs till the last 10 minutes! And considering this show is only 3 episodes long, they need to be moving at a much faster pace.

You forgot to mention that the blond guy was super annoying and might have well be the stereotypical swooning and shrieking useless girl character except for the fact that he has a penis (or at least I am assuming he does). I did not dislike it as much as Narutaki but this show totally did not hook me with anything. The characters seem rather standard stock types. I might have been willing to wait and see if the characters were more but it’s too short of a series to give them any more time to develop. I might have also overlooked the fact that the characters are bland if the action was awesome but the action scenes were certainly pedestrian and horrifically one-sided.

Special A
 This is by and large a typical shojo romance comedy. I like the character designs, I have also heard good things about the manga. But really it seemed very average to me. Not rolling on thefloor funny and not over the top romantic shojo. It was just walking straight down the middle. And it has wacky side character disease, those people were the most interesting and they will probably never be developed.

Maybe by old timer blood is finally maturing to make me a cranky old Brainwasher Detective but Special A seems so standard that I can’t get worked up to care. Hikari and Kei just seem rather boring to me. Shojo manga lives and dies on how much I like the main characters. Awesome side characters are just a bonus. I found that Hikari seems like she has potential but the fact that Kei is just the uber awesome guy who beats her every time seems like it will get old very fast. I keep expecting him to beat her at being able to kiss boys better at some point in the series. I also thought that the side characters were just there. Megumi Yamamoto having to write everything down to talk because her voice is practically a weapon was used for good effect but nobody else sold me enough to ignore the main characters.

Allison to Lillia
This show has the most potential out of everything I have seen and read about thus far. It has a plot, having to do with the country being split in two (constant warring) and how they can reconcile it. It has good characters, Allison is spunky, funny, and strong-willed and she drags her good friend (love?) Wil along for a journey that could change the future of their world. It had suspense, adventure, humor, friendship, and drama all in a beautiful looking fully realized world akin to the 1920’s. This is what all first episodes should be. And the second did not disappoint. I am betting on this being one of the best shows this season as well as the most overlooked.

I’m not sure how you can like this sexist anime that sets back the women’s movement for decades. Oh wait . . . maybe being slightly apologetic does not make you a doormat. Considering the characters designs, a plot centering around a spunky female pilot, and an anti-war message you might easily mistake this a Hayao Miyazaki story. I will go out on a limb and risk looking like a total idiot when I state this might be almost as good as such. I think it has a family friendly feeling while still be entertaining for adults. I did some digging and I found out this anime is an adaptation of the first two parts of a trilogy of light novels. We have not seen any of the Lillia parts of the series but if it is a good as the Allison part I’m sure I will be happy. We both got the feeling that this show is going to be the buried treasure of the season.

The Tower of Druaga
This show started out as a hilarious, rip-roaring, parody of all things RPG has moved into semi-serious mode (episode 2 recently came out). Even with this abrupt change, I am still interested in what is to come. It atleast has the makings for a decent fantasy story which is rare in anime. Let’s hope it doesn’t flounder in the 10 episodes it has left.

It feels like the Tower of Druaga has turned into a serious fantasy adventure with a quirky sense of humor disbursed between action and intrigue much like Scrapped Princess. There is so little good fantasy anime that I will take whatever fix I can. The show has definite potential to fall apart but so far it seems decent. I’m sure some people are going to be thrown off by the non-canon theme first episode but I think it lends the show a certain charm much like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Blassreiter
Blassreiter is junk. It’s true. I couldn’t even gleam enjoyment from it being so bad and blase. The dialogue was lame, the character designs are poor, and they tell you how to feel instead of making you feel it. I felt nothing for the main character and his tragedy, it happened three minutes in, how am I supposed to be connected? And my biggest complaint has to be that the dude on the posters for it appears for all of 5 seconds and he doesn’t even do anything. Although, even with that he still seems like the most interesting character in the series.

Blassreiter seems like a show for people who want to watch a series like the Guyver but wanted an older protagonist. I also feel no real need to go out and watch anymore of this show. Some people might enjoy the dark action and the slightly more mature plots that come with a slightly more mature cast. Actually it’s more of that fake mature like Speed Grapher. A show that thinks it’s mature because it’s dark and deals with issues like sex and violence but is really just a shallow attempt at being mature.

Kamen no Maid Guy
This show clearly says ecchi when you go to the description but I just couldn’t resist after seeing the picture of it on ANN. It deserved to be watched just for that. Kogarashi is just one of the most hilarious looking dudes ever. Of course our very buxom young female lead bounces everywhere for anything and quite often loses her shirt or is in the shower. While this was a little much for me, the episode was hilariously amusing while our maid guy attempts to keep her safe and also clean!

Kamen no Maid Guy is basically what happens when you replace the romance and otaku humor from Hayate the Combat Butler with perverted jokes and boob shots. It does certainly seem like fun if you can tolerate with high levels of ecchi content. The fact that it looks like you took a Fist of the North Star villain and made him the ultimate bodyguard french maid has a certain hilarity built into it. I will continue to watch this guy but I’m not going out of my way to check every night if a new episode has come out.

Amatsuki
Amatsuki has potential, I’m atleast interested in seeing some more of it. While the story is semi-basic, at least we haven’t been told that the main guy is the key to this, the king of that, or the only one who can save something. The brief fight was good, so hopefully there will be more of that in the future. The character personalities were broad enough to also make me curious. But then again I really have no idea of what the plot is at this point.

I have to agree with Narutaki. The main character seems to amazingly easily accept the fact that he has been transported back in time and there are monsters all around him. It seems he is in an odd state of ataraxia. It is certainly odd but it’s better than him be a whiny wet blanket like so many characters in the same situation. It is safe to assume that the main theme is about what are dreams and what is reality but they have yet to develop the main plot. It seems like the stereotypical story of a high school student transported to a monster filled past but it so far it seems to be well done. I like the characters and then seem to have potential so I think I will keep watching this one and see how it develops. It could be interesting or it could be generic but so far it at least seems to be well done.

Nabari no Ou
Nabari no Ou, ninjas! Pretty good fights, too. The characters however aren’t very engaging, at least not right off the bat. I may have to give this two of three more episodes.

I guess the easiest way to sum up this show is modern day Nate the Ninja. In fact Nabari no Ou has some easily identified counterparts in Naruto. That being said I think that the show has sort of its own groove that makes it different enough to be enjoyable. The sheer apathy of the main character makes for some funny scenes but it also makes him somewhat of a bland character at times. Along with Souleater I am predicting this show will be the other show people talk about this season. It is different enough from Naruto that people who want a ninja shonen fighting show might get into it but is good enough to win over a good number of Naruto fans that want more ninja action.

Souleater
Souleater is the show everyone is going to love and be the runaway hit of the season. For me it probably won’t be those things. Maybe it was that “glowing” review I read or maybe it was the fact that I have read some of the manga, but I wasn’t really looking forward to this show. In fact, I wasn’t even going to watch it. But here I get reeled in by what people are saying. The visuals are pretty nice, it has a playful gothic feel that gives the scenery a nice punch. However, I find the actual characters mostly dull looking, especially Mara our heroine. This manga also falls in the ecchi category and really I’m just not in the moody for annoying titty witches clogging up my anime watching experience.

Well anyone who claims that a show does Tim Burton better than Tim Burton better be reviewing an amazingly good show to back up that up. I’m pretty sure that Souleater does not live up to that lofty claim. I do agree that this show looks like it has the potential to be the breakout big hit of the season. In fact much of this show seemed like what would happen if mixed together Bleach and D.Gray-man and threw in a liberal helping of fan service. I’m pretty sure that the cloying titty witch made sure neither of us can get into this show despite the insistence that it has awesome fight scenes. I will admit thought the fact that Mara seems to be the main fighter and Soul is the more passive weapon is somewhat unusual and interesting for a shonen show.

Zettai Kareshi (Live Action)
Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend) I watched this raw so this is just my general impression of it. However, I have read the manga so that gives me some insight. But really the story is just a romance comedy, I don’t really need to know everything being said to be able to laugh and understand what is going on. The series has high quality production, like some of the effects used to show Night as a robot. Both male leads are very good looking, always a plus. And Riko our main girl is silly and charming. This series is nothing amazing but its a fun watch for females for sure.

Golgo 13
Golgo 13 is a show for Daryl Surat and anyone else who is a big seinen manga fan. It does everything a Golgo 13 anime needs to do to make Golgo 13 fans happy. Golgo gets a mission, has detached sex with a woman who needs him more than life itself, kills some thugs, and then makes a nearly impossible hit on his target and then goes of to do it again. I assume that each episode will follow the same basic formula in different places throughout the world with slight variations in the formula. It’s not like they made Golgo 13 throw out action movie one liners with a huge smile on his face or gave him a moe loli companion girl. He is the killing machine Golgo 13. The world conflicts he is involved with may differ but Golgo 13 never changes.

Kaiba
 This series is very beautiful right off the bat but in a retro way that may turn some people off. It has a mystical, fairy-tale like feeling from the moment it starts. We are immediately thrust into an unknown world where our main character is just waking up. He certainly doesn’t seem to know what is going on around him either. But others seem to know things about him based on a strange hole he has in his chest, the locket around his neck, and an odd symbol on his abdomen. It certainly remind me of many sci-fi stories from the 70’s. It captured the imagination right off and I’m curious to see where it all leads.

This is probably the closest you are going to be to an art house anime. I think no matter how good the story or the animation, the Osamu Tezuka style character designs dooms this show to obscurity. I can see the old guard anime fans getting into this show. Since Narutaki watched the show raw and I watched it subtitled we are kicking around the idea that Narutaki watch the whole show raw and do absolutely no research into the show. Narutaki then gives a report of what she thought it was about and then I talk about what the show was actually about from watching the show with subs.

Macross Frontier
For the 25th anniversary of the original The Super Dimension Fortress Macross we get the third TV series in the Macross universe entitled Macross Frontier. So far Frontier is much more the spiritual successor to the original Macross than the lol-fest that was Macross 7. We have all the classic features: a battleship with almost no outside support attacked by a mysterious enemy; transformable Valkyrie fighters; and a love triangle involving a pilot and a singer. This show looks beautiful and so far has been rather entertaining. Good actions scenes and lively characters make this show a joy to watch. American Macross fans might be able to finally forgive Japan for Macross 7 after this show. I think science fiction fans and mecha fans new to the franchise might also get hooked on this lusciously animated show.

I am having a blast following Macross Frontier! The character designs are good and the 3D animation is actually nicely done. Also supreme fighting sequences complete with pop music. Though I am not that impressed with the music. I did notice I liked the opening song a bit better the second time through, so I am hoping to see it grow on me.

Niju-Menso no Musume
Niju-Menso no Musume, was a show I was looking forward to this season because I am a sucker for a good thief. This series seems rather over the top. I think everything that has ever happened in a mystery show happened in the first episode. But it satisfies something in me and I was entertained. Something about the mastermind thief that is just one step ahead is always fun. I also really like the relationships developing between characters. This show is a lot of fun, nothing more nothing less, full of danger, mystery, and a whole lot of adventure.

Vampire Knight
I learned from Anime World Order that apparently Vampire Knight is one of the best selling manga in the United States which took me slightly by surprise. I think that Vampire Knight definitely has the two main of the draws of vampire stories: angst filled boys and drinking blood as a sexual metaphor. The humor and the drama are pretty well balanced. This is a super shojo vampire story set at a school for what it’s worth. Since nerd girls in general love vampires I’m sure this show will be right up their alley. If girls bought more shojo anime I’m sure this show could be one of the best sellers from this season. According to Kohaku they change the pace of certain of revelations so they might be trying to give us a complete story in 26 episodes of a 8+ book series. This can lead to some awful anime produced ending but since I have not read the manga I can’t tell how much better or worse the changes make the story as compared to the original manga.

This season looks to be pretty good! I think that is typical though. Pleanty of goodies to keep your eye on, can’t wait to see how they turn out. It is always interesting to go back and see if your initial impressions are true. Just how good is our intuition? Stay tuned to find out!