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joiedecombatHaven't caught up on the last new NCIS episode yet. Probably tomorrow. In the meantime, anime night's gone to twice a week: Tuesdays we watch Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Thursdays we watch Black Lagoon. I've been watching a bunch of anime lately, so have some thoughts on all of it.
TRC, well. It's enjoyable, although it's a bit too... how to put this... too much of CLAMP going crazy in their own sandbox for me to really get into it, thus far. Plus the pacing kind of drags, and neither Syaoran nor Sakura has any personality so far, so my interest is mostly in Fai and Kurogane. Who are admittedly kind of awesome. I gather that they're one of the main ships in the fandom, but I haven't seen any of that yet; so far they're pretty much a supernatural buddy-cop show all to themselves.
I'm aware that there's some kind of enormously twisty plot to all of this that apparently develops later, and it's possible that I'll develop more interest when we really start getting into that (assuming the anime does, at all). As of what I've seen so far, though, I'm mostly noncommittal beyond my already-expressed affection for Fai (who I'm pretty sure is hiding some nice tasty Broken underneath his pleasantly classy and upbeat exterior) and Kurogane (self-appointed Guy Who Says What The Audience Is Thinking). I'm not well-versed in CLAMP's other works, so the incessant callbacks to them are mostly lost on me, and, well, eh. I find xxxHolic much more interesting. Unfortunately we're not watching that. (Yet.)
Also, Mokona is kind of annoying.
Black Lagoon, meanwhile, is not unlike Cowboy Bebop in the modern South Pacific, although it's a bit darker. The series sets the bar high by having the main characters shoot down a helicopter from their boat in the second episode. With a torpedo. By jumping the boat and then firing the torpedo in midair. Not kidding, it's kind of awesome. Also, I like poor hapless Rock, and Dutch has roughly the same appeal as Jet Black. Revy I'm still undecided on; she's shaping up to be a bit too much of a heroic sociopath for my tastes, but there's no denying that she kicks ass. Balalaika is potentially quite cool as well - she's certainly got style.
We're not very far into it yet, but I'm enjoying it so far.
In addition to these, since Best Buy is dumping most of their anime selection, I picked up several DVDs on the cheap, namely Baccano!, Basilisk, Darker Than Black, Mushi-Shi, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I haven't watched any of the first three yet, so I can't remark on them at all, although I'm told Baccano! is good - Prohibition-era Mafia gangsters with a paranormal twist, apparently. (Basilisk, meanwhile, is samurai drama, and Darker Than Black is something to do with assassins, which, judging from my past viewing history, is probably a reasonably safe bet.)
Mushi-Shi is a lovely quiet episodic series about a guy who walks the earth - which in this case is sort of an alternate feudal Japan, though Ginko himself seems to get his clothes out of Pete Wisdom's closet somehow - trying to help people with problems caused by mushi, which are, well, oddly amorphous supernatural critters responsible for all manner of strange, beautiful, and creepy paranormal business. Heavy on scenery porn, low on action - it's sort of a spiritual sibling to Pet Shop of Horrors, in a way. It's also the only anime in a good long while that I've only watched in English even when given the option of subs; Travis Willingham as Ginko has an incredibly soothing voice. The whole series is very restful.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a one-shot movie about - what else? - an ordinary teenaged girl who discovers that she's somehow developed the ability to leap backwards in time. It's sort of three parts Makoto Shinkai (the director responsible for Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days), one part Hayao Miyazaki, which is to say that it's lovely and heartwarming and I cried like a little girl when I watched it, and everyone else should see it too. And if you haven't seen Makoto Shinkai's films, watch them next.
I also finally watched the first disc of Gunslinger Girl, which looks to be a great big weeper of a series: tiny Italian emo girl cyborg assassins, with an emphasis on their various warped and dysfunctional relationships with their handlers. I'll probably pick up the series for myself sometime - see previous remark about past viewing history and series about assassins.
TRC, well. It's enjoyable, although it's a bit too... how to put this... too much of CLAMP going crazy in their own sandbox for me to really get into it, thus far. Plus the pacing kind of drags, and neither Syaoran nor Sakura has any personality so far, so my interest is mostly in Fai and Kurogane. Who are admittedly kind of awesome. I gather that they're one of the main ships in the fandom, but I haven't seen any of that yet; so far they're pretty much a supernatural buddy-cop show all to themselves.
I'm aware that there's some kind of enormously twisty plot to all of this that apparently develops later, and it's possible that I'll develop more interest when we really start getting into that (assuming the anime does, at all). As of what I've seen so far, though, I'm mostly noncommittal beyond my already-expressed affection for Fai (who I'm pretty sure is hiding some nice tasty Broken underneath his pleasantly classy and upbeat exterior) and Kurogane (self-appointed Guy Who Says What The Audience Is Thinking). I'm not well-versed in CLAMP's other works, so the incessant callbacks to them are mostly lost on me, and, well, eh. I find xxxHolic much more interesting. Unfortunately we're not watching that. (Yet.)
Also, Mokona is kind of annoying.
Black Lagoon, meanwhile, is not unlike Cowboy Bebop in the modern South Pacific, although it's a bit darker. The series sets the bar high by having the main characters shoot down a helicopter from their boat in the second episode. With a torpedo. By jumping the boat and then firing the torpedo in midair. Not kidding, it's kind of awesome. Also, I like poor hapless Rock, and Dutch has roughly the same appeal as Jet Black. Revy I'm still undecided on; she's shaping up to be a bit too much of a heroic sociopath for my tastes, but there's no denying that she kicks ass. Balalaika is potentially quite cool as well - she's certainly got style.
We're not very far into it yet, but I'm enjoying it so far.
In addition to these, since Best Buy is dumping most of their anime selection, I picked up several DVDs on the cheap, namely Baccano!, Basilisk, Darker Than Black, Mushi-Shi, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I haven't watched any of the first three yet, so I can't remark on them at all, although I'm told Baccano! is good - Prohibition-era Mafia gangsters with a paranormal twist, apparently. (Basilisk, meanwhile, is samurai drama, and Darker Than Black is something to do with assassins, which, judging from my past viewing history, is probably a reasonably safe bet.)
Mushi-Shi is a lovely quiet episodic series about a guy who walks the earth - which in this case is sort of an alternate feudal Japan, though Ginko himself seems to get his clothes out of Pete Wisdom's closet somehow - trying to help people with problems caused by mushi, which are, well, oddly amorphous supernatural critters responsible for all manner of strange, beautiful, and creepy paranormal business. Heavy on scenery porn, low on action - it's sort of a spiritual sibling to Pet Shop of Horrors, in a way. It's also the only anime in a good long while that I've only watched in English even when given the option of subs; Travis Willingham as Ginko has an incredibly soothing voice. The whole series is very restful.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a one-shot movie about - what else? - an ordinary teenaged girl who discovers that she's somehow developed the ability to leap backwards in time. It's sort of three parts Makoto Shinkai (the director responsible for Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days), one part Hayao Miyazaki, which is to say that it's lovely and heartwarming and I cried like a little girl when I watched it, and everyone else should see it too. And if you haven't seen Makoto Shinkai's films, watch them next.
I also finally watched the first disc of Gunslinger Girl, which looks to be a great big weeper of a series: tiny Italian emo girl cyborg assassins, with an emphasis on their various warped and dysfunctional relationships with their handlers. I'll probably pick up the series for myself sometime - see previous remark about past viewing history and series about assassins.
