Sunday, 29 April 2007

Spring Anime 2007

i know i know.. i'm very very late... i'm also very very lazy... =P

well, much thoughts (in italics) put into summaries...

disclaimers: wat i feel is wat i feel. do not flame me for criticizing any series u may or may not like. most summaries are based on wat i know from the 1st few episodes, any wrongs is entirely my fault for not watching til the end.

Hayate no Gotoku (sun)

boy, in order to pay off a massive debt incurred by his parents, becomes butler of a super rich girl after he saves her from hooligans. story shows his (weird) adventures as he learns to become a good butler.

well, not bad for a harem-based anime. funny, with lots of references to other animes such as Kamisama Kazoku, and even One Piece. and i like how they always use a cute face to cover up the "bloody" scenes.

Seto no Hanayome (sun)

boy nearly drowns in sea and is saved by a mermaid. as is the custom of the yakuza (japanese 101: japanese mafia) merpeople, he has to either marry her or face the death penalty (family included).

obvious answer is definitely to marry her. but not that it matters anyway, since the girl's father literally hates boy for "stealing his girl" away from him and has made many attempts to kill/chase away boy.

this show is very comical, and u really laugh out loud at many parts. male lead's (indirect) first kiss was from right-hand man of yakuza father (when he was performing CPR on him), and there's a shojo-manga scene everytime they meet. very very funny.

El Cazador de la Bruja (mon)

about a female bounty hunter protecting mysterious girl who is on the run from other hunters. lots of unrevealed secrets, from why is the hunter protecting her, why mysterious girl is on the wanted list, what is the past she had forgotten blah blah blah...

ok, i'm only watching this cos it reminds me of Cowboy Bebop and Coyote Ragtime Show. and the texas-western style theme helps too. story is slow though, as they only reveal very little every episode. hopefully, the plot will be interesting enough for me to stay on.

Claymore (tue)

youma rampaging throughout the world (sounds like saiyuki already), and the only soldiers capable of defeating them are the Claymores. genetically engineered, they are half-human and half-youma, and wield a huge sword with which they are named after. much blood and violence galore.

i only picked this up after meow meow said it's good. 1st episode was good, but subsequently, each episode gets pretty repetitive and seemed like the same old fare all the time. only good for a one-off watching. not really for keeps.

Overdrive (tue)

sports anime about boy joining the cycling club because of the girl he likes. of course, like all shonen manga plot, he finds that he really likes cycling and proves to be the rookie star of the team.

first thoughts was that the guy is a total wimp. he hangs around with the school delinquents who just treats him as their personal slave and ATM machine, and tries to be fashionable but instead is a total fashion disaster. the other characters, his team mates and other school competitors, are the ones i'm more interested in watching for.

Saint Beast ~Kouin Jojishi Tenshi Tan~ (tue)

prelude to the previous 6-episode Saint Beast that aired 4yrs ago, this tells the story of 8 angels, and why 2 of them rebelled against the gods.

filled with loads of shonen-ai moments, i'm watching only for the bishonen eye candy. plus, i did watch the 1st part, so just to complete the story...

Romeo X Juliet (wed)

Romeo is the son of the terrible dictator. Juliet is the last surviving member of the Capulet family that was massacred by romeo's father. story goes about showing how Juliet (or rather her faithful knights) seeks revenge against the Montague family, yet at the same time, falls in love with the very person she shouldn't be with.

in which they basically keep the star-crossed lovers part, but totally changed everything else in the story. they still kept the 16th-century feel about it, but set the story in a aerial city called Neo Verona. it strangely reminds me of Laputa (Studio Ghibli), though they have flying horses instead of airplanes.

i love this series! GONZO is gonna out-do itself with this alone, nevermind the other current series like Seto no Hanayome, or even previous ones like Trinity Blood (my personal fav). hopefully, it lives up to expectations. not that i expect a happy ending. in fact, it better not have a happy ending if they're gonna follow the story like wat Shakespeare intended.

Darker than BLACK (thurs)

guy with psychic/telephatic powers and girl whose power streams from water, works for organization that is trying to uncover the secret behind Hell's Gate, which is some kind of force-field that landed in Tokyo. other psychics also around to interfere, but male lead seems to be the one of the stronger ones.

not bad. the character designs are good, and episodes are fairly paced. but they're also not into revealing alot of information per episode. well, this is the show that is replacing Geass, so i'll be expecting more from it. at least much more interesting than Kaze no Stigma (reviewed below).

Saiunkoku Monogatari (sat)

2nd season already, so not much to give an introduction to. continuation from where the 1st season left us, Shuurei continues on her journey as she learns that being an official is not as easy as it seems.

hopefully, more ryuuki-shuurei moments... aahh, i can't help it. i really like ryuuki, and he's not getting alot of screen-time. the story is getting more and more complex, and more characters are being introduced. i wonder how they would end this...

Lovely Complex (sat)

a too tall girl and a too short boy. can love blossom between them? that'll have to come after they stop biting each other's heads off and end the competition of "who will get a boyfriend/girlfriend first".

main draw in watching this: the kansai-ben. the seiyuu for One Piece's Nami is voicing the female lead and i really love her kansai-ben. the exaggerations reminds me of Nodame, with the arrows, ship sinking and all...

Seirei no Moribito (sat)

another bounty hunter becoming protector series. this time, it's set in olden japan, where a young prince is on the run. apparently, he has some kind of evil spirit in him that will cause his father's (the king) downfall.

like el cazador, it's another female hunter turned protector. however, it's not as interesting compared to the earlier. i actually wanted to drop it at ep3, but something happened that made me want to watch ep4, so i'm still gonna keep watching. let's see if i'll drop it after another few episodes.

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well, that sums up the 11 new spring anime i'm gonna be watching for the next few months...

and now, for my rejects...

once again, my above disclaimers applies...

Nagasarete Airantou

only because moo moo say i'll do the summary...

guy run away from home and gets stranded onto an unknown island that is over-populated with girls. mayhem guaranteed with all the girls fighting over him like they've never seen a guy before. nose-bleeding scenes that can rival that of yamato nadeshiko.

duh... i mean, how is it that the girls are always the ones being flipped over ships... i can only take this much female harem series in one season. too ecchi for my liking...

Heroic Age

1st mecha series (i watched) of this season, and very disappointed with it. character designs by same guy who gave us Fafner and Gundam Seed, which should really give a hint of how the story will go. i.e. not very good. well, at least for the previous 2 series, i finished them, but the current one is much lacking in good solid plot.

Kaze no Stigma

guy from family of fire arts was chased out by his dad cos he's not gifted. returns a few years later as a wind arts master by signing as a contractor. and now, he's framed for murders in the fire arts family.

this is wat i say about Gonzo producing not-so-good works. story not strong enough to last more than 2 episodes. can't say wat else, but juz not appealing in general...

Touka Gettan

terrible... dun even wanna give a plot summary... in fact, no plot watsoever... i was so blinded by the beautiful character designs... this show sucks...

Kiss Dum -ENGAGE planet-

aliens, some in the form of huge mosquitoes, are attacking the people. enters mecha pilot that had to be broken out from detention barracks to save his girlfriend who is framed for abandoning the organization they work in.

2nd mecha series i picked up, hoping would be good, but another disappointment. i dun like unknown alien-like creatures. too much of the story would be based on discovering the reason for the existence of said unknown aliens and why they wanna invade earth blah blah blah... boring...

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finally, as a closing to this super duper long post, here's not forgetting the anime series that are still carrying on strong...

One Piece, D.Gray-Man, Bleach, Nodame Cantabile, Katenkyoshi Hitman Reborn...

and as u can see, i've officially given up on Death Note... it's super super boring... too much crap...

so, how many of the new spring series have u already picked up?

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