Cinnamon Ass

These are the last few first episodes I’m probably going to watch - I’ve decided to just completely avoid Kurogane no Linebarrel as I’ll just “watch” it through DigiKerot’s comic strips instead. Nice ED, though.

(except Vampire Knight Guilty, which I keep forgetting about! Please please PLEASE tell me that Yuki is going to do something useful this time round…)

Kurozuka

This show is worth watching entirely for the use of colour, particularly in the second episode. Sure, we’re all watching the terrible AT-X raws or whatever so it’s all filtered through a haze of fuzz, but to some extent the fuzz actually helps with the almost hallucinogenic feel of the show - it feels like I’m watching some kind of dream, almost. With some pretty nifty animation and a fairly intriguing plot (although if you’ve had it with glamorousing vampirism you’re not going to take much pleasure in this), and some good direction, Kurozuka plays out much more interestingly than it sounds.

I hear the sex and gore have been toned down from the manga. I like it this way, frankly - the massive splashes of blood are more stylish than full blown body parts flying everywhere, frankly.

Tytania

I don’t like space operas, but I always try them out just to see if I’ll enjoy them - even unintentionally, like Glass no Kantai!. I don’t know what it is, as normally I like complex semi-politics in my entertainment, but even Gundam turns me off.

Tytania, unfortunately, has done nothing to change my mind. I don’t think it’s fair for me to slam it as it’s not a genre I have much experience with (just Garakan and Crest of the Stars, really) but all I saw were a bunch of entitled blowhards drinking tea and moving spaceships around in tactics I really didn’t care about for no apparent reason. Toward the Terra (which isn’t anything like this show) introduces us slowly to the world, whereas here we’re just thrown straight in with political factions and royal families with little indication of what’s going on and I just wasn’t interested, unfortunately. Add to that the stiff character animation (although the CG was quite nice!) and there’s just nothing for me here.

Nodame Cantabile - Paris-hen

I’ve not watched any more than episode 1 yet and I already feel like there’s something very off about this season. Nodame herself is still amusingly weird, but the show didn’t feel right, there’s some kind of spark missing from it. I suppose the awful OP (both animation and song) doesn’t help, but I can’t put my finger on why I feel so nervous about this season. I’ll give it time.

Skip Beat!

Kyoko is going to be awesome. That’s all I have to say about the first episode…

What else is there to comment on…

Toaru Majutsu no Index benefits from some incredible special effects animators (the flames in episode 2 are jawdropping), but Touma is such an uninteresting lead character. It’s not the way he reacts to things, which at least shows he has a spine etc., but it’s the whole conceit of having that stupid right hand of his. If every battle is going to involve him holding his hand out in front of him and occasionally punching people it’s going to drive me nuts when everyone else has flashy abilities up the wazoo. My biggest beef with the show is how it seems to pander to the audience at moments when it could just get on with a decent action adventure plot - Komoe is only tiny and speaks with a cutesy voice because it makes her moe rather than any kind of plot reason (as otherwise she pretty much acts like an adult), and Index herself is quite interesting until she starts with the ridiculous biting etc.

I think that’s actually the only other show I’ve got a comment to make about at present. Well, except Mouryou no Hako, but I need to take the time for full entries on THAT show…

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Currently Watching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.