'Tis The Season.... For Anime!
--
I'll toss another one of these at you, to mark the occasion:
-- Mylene Farmer - Peut-Etre Toi --
Yes, the red-haired heroine in the video is Mylene herself.... with the animation done by Production I.G. (the studio behind "Ghost In The Shell"). The occasion is the beginning of a new season of anime shows starting on Japanese television!! Of course, I'm still way behind on a lot of the older shows I have here, but it's nice to give myself the illusion that I'm on top of things by checking out some of the current shows while they're still current, for a change! If you want to tempt yourself, and especially if you think that your viewing schedule and hard drive space can accomodate the extra load (which is dubious in my case, but I went for it anyway!), then you can check it out for yourself right here:
http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2007/03/26/spring-2007-preview/
I was already gathering episodes of "Lucky Star", "Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA" and "Darker Than Black" before I saw that page, but I found a few more that look pretty interesting.... I could only find one episode fansubbed for "The Skull Man" so far (plus a 'live-action prequel', oddly enough?!) -- not sure what to expect from that one yet. I just watched the first episode of "Bokurano", and it seems quite intriguing so far. The same with "Kaze no Stigma", actually -- so I'll probably continue with both of those.... I'm not sure how many others I'll dare try! (Although, I'll probably have to include "Nagasarete Airantou" as well, because of Yui Horie having a major part in it!)
I've also started watching "Ergo Proxy" recently, and can highly recommend that one, too!!! It's a bit like "Ghost In The Shell" meets "Bladerunner", with a touch of "1984" thrown in -- fairly dark and cerebral, overall. (Ending theme song is "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead!!) And of course, there is "Death Note" -- if you haven't started watching that yet, then.... what are you waiting for?!!
So yeah, I'm having a major anime weekend here, so far....!
UPDATE: Watched episode 2 of "Bokurano" -- definitely interesting! It seemed like they were going for a lighter tone for most of this episode, which was slightly odd really, although it takes a definite darker turn at the end of it.... It's still hard to know what most of these characters are really about, since there's 15 of them in the group, but I guess we'll find out. There are 14 seventh-graders, plus one girl who's a fourth-grader. For some reason, there's one guy (Ushiro) - who seems to be most sullen among the bunch - that has a severe hatred for the little girl (Kana). Odd, but intriguing certainly.
{EDIT: Ah, OK.... she's his little sister, that's why they don't get along -- but still! Watched "Bokurano" #3 as well, which was a more sombre and low-key episode -- and now I'm REALLY curious to see where it goes from here!! There's another strange character in this (Kodama) - who seems to have a bit of a sadistic or unmerciful streak in him - and it looks like he'll be taking the helm for the next round of the game.... Theoretically, he should be extremely well-suited for this game, actually! But then, the first guy (Waku) seemed like a strong player too -- until the game was over. So, we'll see! Also, "Darker Than Black" has moved from 'mildly intriguing' to 'very intriguing' with its episode #3....! Excellent stuff!!}
I can tell that "Kaze no Stigma" will definitely be peppered with a more light-hearted approach to some of its story, but it still looks to be a cool show as well. (Nice animation, too!) "Nagasarete Airantou" is definitely more on the straight-up silly side, but I expected as much!! "Kirarin Revolution" is another silly show that I still want to see more of.... but it's months later, and only 2 episodes have been subbed so far! (This is the only anime that I'm getting the raw untranslated episodes for, so I may resort to watching those at some point....) "Lucky Star" is another 100% silly show, in case you couldn't guess! "Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA" seems to be serious and silly in equal measure. "Death Note" is mostly serious, but certainly has some darkly humourous stuff in it as well.... "Ergo Proxy" on the other hand, is almost uniformly dark and serious. So, there's no lack of variety to be had, in any case!
And, I've got up to episode 5 of "The Skull Man" now -- so I'll have to check that one out soon!! Gah, too much cool stuff....!
(More "Bokurano" here, too!!)
......
I'll toss another one of these at you, to mark the occasion:
Click to view-- Mylene Farmer - Peut-Etre Toi --
Yes, the red-haired heroine in the video is Mylene herself.... with the animation done by Production I.G. (the studio behind "Ghost In The Shell"). The occasion is the beginning of a new season of anime shows starting on Japanese television!! Of course, I'm still way behind on a lot of the older shows I have here, but it's nice to give myself the illusion that I'm on top of things by checking out some of the current shows while they're still current, for a change! If you want to tempt yourself, and especially if you think that your viewing schedule and hard drive space can accomodate the extra load (which is dubious in my case, but I went for it anyway!), then you can check it out for yourself right here:
http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2007/03/26/spring-2007-preview/
I was already gathering episodes of "Lucky Star", "Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA" and "Darker Than Black" before I saw that page, but I found a few more that look pretty interesting.... I could only find one episode fansubbed for "The Skull Man" so far (plus a 'live-action prequel', oddly enough?!) -- not sure what to expect from that one yet. I just watched the first episode of "Bokurano", and it seems quite intriguing so far. The same with "Kaze no Stigma", actually -- so I'll probably continue with both of those.... I'm not sure how many others I'll dare try! (Although, I'll probably have to include "Nagasarete Airantou" as well, because of Yui Horie having a major part in it!)
I've also started watching "Ergo Proxy" recently, and can highly recommend that one, too!!! It's a bit like "Ghost In The Shell" meets "Bladerunner", with a touch of "1984" thrown in -- fairly dark and cerebral, overall. (Ending theme song is "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead!!) And of course, there is "Death Note" -- if you haven't started watching that yet, then.... what are you waiting for?!!
So yeah, I'm having a major anime weekend here, so far....!
UPDATE: Watched episode 2 of "Bokurano" -- definitely interesting! It seemed like they were going for a lighter tone for most of this episode, which was slightly odd really, although it takes a definite darker turn at the end of it.... It's still hard to know what most of these characters are really about, since there's 15 of them in the group, but I guess we'll find out. There are 14 seventh-graders, plus one girl who's a fourth-grader. For some reason, there's one guy (Ushiro) - who seems to be most sullen among the bunch - that has a severe hatred for the little girl (Kana). Odd, but intriguing certainly.
{EDIT: Ah, OK.... she's his little sister, that's why they don't get along -- but still! Watched "Bokurano" #3 as well, which was a more sombre and low-key episode -- and now I'm REALLY curious to see where it goes from here!! There's another strange character in this (Kodama) - who seems to have a bit of a sadistic or unmerciful streak in him - and it looks like he'll be taking the helm for the next round of the game.... Theoretically, he should be extremely well-suited for this game, actually! But then, the first guy (Waku) seemed like a strong player too -- until the game was over. So, we'll see! Also, "Darker Than Black" has moved from 'mildly intriguing' to 'very intriguing' with its episode #3....! Excellent stuff!!}
I can tell that "Kaze no Stigma" will definitely be peppered with a more light-hearted approach to some of its story, but it still looks to be a cool show as well. (Nice animation, too!) "Nagasarete Airantou" is definitely more on the straight-up silly side, but I expected as much!! "Kirarin Revolution" is another silly show that I still want to see more of.... but it's months later, and only 2 episodes have been subbed so far! (This is the only anime that I'm getting the raw untranslated episodes for, so I may resort to watching those at some point....) "Lucky Star" is another 100% silly show, in case you couldn't guess! "Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA" seems to be serious and silly in equal measure. "Death Note" is mostly serious, but certainly has some darkly humourous stuff in it as well.... "Ergo Proxy" on the other hand, is almost uniformly dark and serious. So, there's no lack of variety to be had, in any case!
And, I've got up to episode 5 of "The Skull Man" now -- so I'll have to check that one out soon!! Gah, too much cool stuff....!
(More "Bokurano" here, too!!)
......