Return of the Son of Anime Wednesday Recap
I was glancing at my archives a while back, and realized that I started this feature up for all of two weeks before forgetting about it. So here, have another. COUP mini-reviews for interested out-of-towners:
New regular series (on Episode 2 of each right now) -
Darker Than Black
This is the old "mysterious phenomenon gives a small number of people special powers" set-up. There's a few twists, though. One is that each time someone uses a power, they have to pay their own individual "price", which can range from obsessive-compulsively arranging pebbles to breaking one's own fingers. Interesting "nothing is free" sort of angle. Also, nearly everyone with powers has been recruited by one government agency or anothor for espionage or assassination work, and it's all hush-hush from the general populous, so there's lots of deadly cat-and-mouse going on. Standard "modern" animation style, fairly well-done. Oh, and the last two minutes I saw introduced a talking cat character who was *not* immediately annoying, which is pretty impressive.
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
The new wackiness from Studio Gainax. In a post-apocalyptic future, most of humanity lives in isolated underground settlements. Those who scavenge a life above-ground are constantly beset by beast-men piloting large mecha. Main character is a boy who (surprise surprise) accidentally discovers his own mecha - which happens to be four feet tall, shaped like a head, and heavily drill-themed - and escapes to the surface. His companions include a ludicrously over-confident older-brother figure and the (surprise surprise) large-chested gun-toting girl they meet above-ground. Thankfully, the whole thing doesn't take itself very seriously and is mostly about goofy mecha action, so it seems pretty fun so far.
Nodame Cantabile
Adapted from manga that also has a live-action TV version. The adventures of a bunch of flawed geniuses at a classical music school. I don't have a lot to say about it, but it's good stuff. It also features tons of real classical music, so major bonus points if you happen to like lots of that genre.
Temporary series (also all on episode 2) -
Bokurano
If you know the original manga author of this title from his previous work on "Shadow Star", you can kind of expect that nothing good will happen to the 15 high-school kids who star in this. The set-up has them suckered into piloting a giant robot by a creepy man calling himself Kokopelli. They get to defend the Earth from ginormous insectoid mechs. Lots of fun, right? Yeah, don't bet on it. Word has it the plot started changing about half-way through the anime run, because the whole thing was too dang bleak for the director to handle, so he got the manga author's permission to go his own way.
Seto no Hanayome
A boy is saved by a mermaid... and then, due to arcane yakuza-mermaid social rules, is forced to become engaged to her. Yeah, this pulls out just about every "accidental betrothal" and "insane in-laws" plot point from the last twenty years. But hey, not all the kids have seen Urusei Yatsura a decade ago like I have. It's mostly fun, and has a few great characters, but personally I'd just as soon be watching UY.
Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei
This is one of my current favorites. It follows the travails of a suicidally pessimistic school teacher, his obliviously optimistic student, and the rest of their pretty much totally dysfunctional class. This is one of those otaku-oriented shows that throws out so many references and random asides per minute that you'd need to frame-freeze to get them all - but it's really just as fun even if you're missing half of it. It also will randomly switch into insanely stylized noir animation or other crazy styles at the drop of a hat. It's all crazy, but due to the subject matter it comes off as less hyperactive and more, well, stylish, than something like Haruhi Suzumiya or Excel Saga.
New regular series (on Episode 2 of each right now) -
Darker Than Black
This is the old "mysterious phenomenon gives a small number of people special powers" set-up. There's a few twists, though. One is that each time someone uses a power, they have to pay their own individual "price", which can range from obsessive-compulsively arranging pebbles to breaking one's own fingers. Interesting "nothing is free" sort of angle. Also, nearly everyone with powers has been recruited by one government agency or anothor for espionage or assassination work, and it's all hush-hush from the general populous, so there's lots of deadly cat-and-mouse going on. Standard "modern" animation style, fairly well-done. Oh, and the last two minutes I saw introduced a talking cat character who was *not* immediately annoying, which is pretty impressive.
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
The new wackiness from Studio Gainax. In a post-apocalyptic future, most of humanity lives in isolated underground settlements. Those who scavenge a life above-ground are constantly beset by beast-men piloting large mecha. Main character is a boy who (surprise surprise) accidentally discovers his own mecha - which happens to be four feet tall, shaped like a head, and heavily drill-themed - and escapes to the surface. His companions include a ludicrously over-confident older-brother figure and the (surprise surprise) large-chested gun-toting girl they meet above-ground. Thankfully, the whole thing doesn't take itself very seriously and is mostly about goofy mecha action, so it seems pretty fun so far.
Nodame Cantabile
Adapted from manga that also has a live-action TV version. The adventures of a bunch of flawed geniuses at a classical music school. I don't have a lot to say about it, but it's good stuff. It also features tons of real classical music, so major bonus points if you happen to like lots of that genre.
Temporary series (also all on episode 2) -
Bokurano
If you know the original manga author of this title from his previous work on "Shadow Star", you can kind of expect that nothing good will happen to the 15 high-school kids who star in this. The set-up has them suckered into piloting a giant robot by a creepy man calling himself Kokopelli. They get to defend the Earth from ginormous insectoid mechs. Lots of fun, right? Yeah, don't bet on it. Word has it the plot started changing about half-way through the anime run, because the whole thing was too dang bleak for the director to handle, so he got the manga author's permission to go his own way.
Seto no Hanayome
A boy is saved by a mermaid... and then, due to arcane yakuza-mermaid social rules, is forced to become engaged to her. Yeah, this pulls out just about every "accidental betrothal" and "insane in-laws" plot point from the last twenty years. But hey, not all the kids have seen Urusei Yatsura a decade ago like I have. It's mostly fun, and has a few great characters, but personally I'd just as soon be watching UY.
Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei
This is one of my current favorites. It follows the travails of a suicidally pessimistic school teacher, his obliviously optimistic student, and the rest of their pretty much totally dysfunctional class. This is one of those otaku-oriented shows that throws out so many references and random asides per minute that you'd need to frame-freeze to get them all - but it's really just as fun even if you're missing half of it. It also will randomly switch into insanely stylized noir animation or other crazy styles at the drop of a hat. It's all crazy, but due to the subject matter it comes off as less hyperactive and more, well, stylish, than something like Haruhi Suzumiya or Excel Saga.