Dashing Entrance! Captain Earth!

Let me start by saying I like breaking promises about as much as I'm sure you like having promises to you broken, but I don't think there's going to be a comprehensive Witch Craft Works review any time in the foreseeable future.  I just...couldn't really find a lot to say.  It wasn't a bad show, the words just wouldn't come.  So, I'll make this quick so we can move on.

If you like harem shows (of which I may be incorrect on), magical girls, comedy parodying ridiculous tropes in anime (legions of students who idolize their school prince/princess which I sincerely hope doesn't actually happen in Japan), or any combination of the 3, than you might like Witch Craft Works.  It's on Hulu if you want to check it, and here's a funny screencap.

And now that that's out of the way, we can talk about Captain Earth

To be perfectly honest, I had kind of gone into anime hibernation (had to spend the last couple months using Anime Night to catch up on Game of Thrones before the premier...I'm sure you understand) and wasn't even really certain I was going to be watching any of the new shows this season.  But now we're all current on GoT, so Anime Night's back in full swing.  It was actually at last week's pilgrimage that I first heard about Captain Earth.

A friend of mine said to the room "So who's excited about Star Driver 2?" to which I was the only one in the room to hesitantly raise my hand.  In answer to my confusion, she explained to me that so far there isn't actually a Star Driver 2, but a good chunk of the crew (studio Bones, director Takuya Igarashi, and music by Satoru Kousaki) got together to make Captain Earth, a new show that is just getting into it's third week.

This news piqued my interest because I happened to be incredibly fond of Star Driver when it was airing in 2010.  Put simply, it was a 25 episode, feel-good action/mecha/romance show that praised living life vibrantly, being a shining star as it were (it's on Hulu).  Also there's epic bromance, bitchin' coats, and dual-wielding...so I was sold.

But enough about that, let's talk about Captain Earth.

Captain Earth revolves around a boy named Daichi Manatsu who's just getting into the summer of his senior year of high school.  He's in a bit of a slump, presumably due to the death of his father, an astronaut and a captain (which is...apparently a big deal...ionno Japan, you act like Captain is synonymous with heroism).

Let me put it into perspective for you.  If the Air Force ranks are anything to go on, being a captain is...something, but I don't think it's what Japan thinks it is >___>

Anyways, Daichi's grades have been slipping, he's disconnecting from his friends, he's kind of apathetic and spends all his time playing video games (at which he is incredibly good), reading books and Wikipedia spiraling about subjects that interest him, but not necessarily his schoolwork.  We spend a good chunk of the first episode pitting flashbacks of Daichi's former, vibrant youth, against the man he's become, leading me to believe that his father's death was A) pretty recent and B) really traumatic for him.

There's also some interesting story about this weird guy he met at an abandoned lab during those flashbacks (my money's on an alien) and a girl who sleeps in a giant sphere of water until Daichi touches it and wakes her up (some kind of "chosen one" plot gears here...or something, the encounter was really short so I didn't have a lot to go on).

So anyways, Daichi goes home for the summer, visits the old lab and meets a...ghost(?)...alien(?)...strange person who shows him that there's some weird...cult-gang(?) with a secret handshake that's attacking Earth,

...just sayin'

gives him a space gun that's not really a gun and teleports him to the launch pad of the Livlaster, this show's mech.  He takes off, flies through a series of satellites that give his ROBOT a robot to pilot (something that took close to sixteen episodes in Gurren Lagann) and is ready to take on the first villain.  And that's where the first episode ends.

But hey, you got my attention, I'll say that much.  So, in a nutshell, that's the first episode of Captain Earth without too too many spoilers.  Overall, I liked it.  It's shiny, well paced, and interesting enough to get me to tune into the second and third episodes as soon as this post hits the press.  Not my top ten, but a real solid mech show that's cool, innovative, and (as far as I can tell) not terribly serious, because sometimes you need whimsical mechs.  If you want super serious, go watch Gundam!

So you captain on, Captain Earth, you got my vote.

Can't go wrong with mechs with hats

Down, But Not Out: Kill la Kill

A bit of a retro post here as we check out Kill la Kill.

Kill la Kill premiered as part of the Fall lineup, though it fell through the cracks for me and became one of those shows that I had queued up, but never really checked out.  It has a bit of a prestigious reputation, being another of the brain-children of Hiroyuki Imaishi, director of such works as Tengen Toppa: Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.  One is a risque comedy about fallen angels with crippling vices, featuring villains themed after almost all the bodily fluids and uses every dirty joke imaginable, and one is a fighting-spirit fueled journey as a boy becomes and man...with mecha (I'll let you guess which is which).

Anyways, Kill la Kill gets one immediate vote of confidence from its older siblings, and another from various friends of mine.  So about a week ago, after polishing off the new episode of Space Dandy and Witch Craft Works (review to come), we at anime night finally put on the first episode of Kill la Kill (about fourteen weeks after its original air date).

Kill la Kill (subtitled by me as "Satsuki Scowls from High Places") takes place in a dystopian city/school called Honnouji Academy, where certain individuals are given special powers by their uniforms, which the student council regulate and extort to control and subjugate the other students and civilians below.  No one can do anything against the oppression because they can't get their hands on a uniform powerful enough (there's a power ranking system ranging from one to three stars) to stand a chance against the council.  If this is reminding anybody else of the plot to the first half of Gurren Lagann, rest assured that you're not the only one.

Anyways, things shake up when a mysterious transfer student, Ryuuko Matoi, rolls into town and essentially pulls a blade on the Student Council president (that girl Satsuki I mentioned earlier).  It's half of a giant pair of scissors.  The other half was used to murder her father and she's looking for answers.  Very much a "loose-cannon-cop-on-the-edge" kind of feel.

So she pulls a blade, gets her shit rocked, but eventually gets her hands on some kind of experimental uniform of her own (it was pretty sketchy, I think it molested her), and starts kicking butt.  Basically the first episode in a nutshell.

Don't take the dismissive nature with which I write this review to mean I disliked Kill la Kill.  I just thought it was an okay show, one that I will probably stick with to the end, but it certainly did not live up to the hype for me.  I think that it rides very heavily on the coattails of Gurren Lagann, using that fame and popularity to boost a show that would have gotten maybe...65% of viewers to stay onboard to one that locks in a whole 90% (these figures are entirely conjecture, none of it is based in fact, just my impression).  Simply put: Kill la Kill was good, but definitely has room for improvement.

Despite my disappointment, Kill la Kill had its fair share of positive points.  I really liked Ryuuko, she was a girl with spunk, but didn't have to act like a hardcore badass all the time.  The funny parts had good comedic timing and the comic relief character was dependably ridiculous.

Even though I would say Kill la Kill was a bit of a let down for me at first, I'm going to stick with it because, like I said, it has room for improvement and time to make that improvement.  I'm also reminded that even Gurren Lagann definitely ended a lot stronger than it began.  So I'm left with hope and aspiration for this show.

Space Dandy - The Show that Launched a Thousand Screencaps

I managed to catch the first episode of Space Dandy last night at my weekly anime sojourn.

What.

Can I say.

About Space Dandy?

Much like previous works from its creator, Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo), this show is trendy.  And when I say 'trendy', I don't mean, "of, or in accordance with, the latest fashion trends".  No, when I say 'trendy', I guess I'm saying that this show knows what it wants to be and accomplishes that very well.  With Cowboy Bebop, it was a jazz/blues space western.  With Samurai Champloo it was a hip-hop retelling of feudal Japanese history.

And Space Dandy...well, Space Dandy is a disco inferno comedy that serves as both space odyssey and parody with apparent antagonists Satan and the villain from Planet of the Apes.

I wasn't joking about Satan and the ape, by the way.

Nailed it!

So anyways, how was Space Dandy?  It was everything I expected it to be and more.

It takes a real friend to laugh at you while you're drowning.

This show was a colorful acid trip through ridiculous pretense and occasional fourth-wall-breaking commentary, with a colorful array of characters (a space hero whose incompetence is rivaled only by the style at which he achieves it, a perverted cat-creature whose real name can only be articulated as a set of squiggly lines, and a criminally adorable robot), gorgeous visuals, and a really smooth animation style that you wouldn't see in your ordinary B-show.

What I'm trying to say is that Space Dandy is a trippy A-show that tries to be a B-show, which is part of what makes it an A-show.

What I love about Space Dandy is the how it serves as its own parody without constantly breaking the fourth wall.  It uses tropes from different anime but presents them in such a way that it shows just how ridiculous those things can be.  Like the arbitrary 'manly-tears-in-the-opening' trend.

Needless to say, I will be keeping up with this show on a weekly basis and I have high, high hopes for this one.  If you haven't watched it, you should.  You can catch it in English on Toonami, with Hulu, and I think on Amazon Instant Video.  As for the Japanese.  Well...that's not hard if you know where to look.

You stay classy, Space Dandy

Winter Is...Well, Looks Like It's Already Here

This has been me with this post

But the times change, and so must I.  So let's talk about Winter 2013-14.

This week marked the 13th week of Autumn, meaning that Winter has come, and with it a whole new batch of shows.

Unfortunately, I find myself looking forward with apprehension, rather than excitement.

This is not to say that I look to the new season and see nothing good, I just see nothing...that strikes me as phenomenal, and I've got so many shows on the backburner--hell, I've got shows on the backburner for being on the regular backburner--and I'm thinking about spending this season catching up on that, as well as dabbling in the new material.

http://i4.minus.com/ibn5CtbX8FeEHT.jpg

Above is the complete list of Winter anime as I know it.  As I said earlier, I wasn't particularly wowed by any one, but I've been wrong before.  So let's get into the nitty-gritty.

The first show that I will be pioneering--boldly going, if you will-- is Space Dandy.

This show was met with roaring approval from my anime night friends.  And I won't lie, when I originally scoped out the shows this season, this one caught my attention the most, because--as anyone who knows me will tell you--I love me a pompadour.

Everything I know about dandies I learned from Wally in Fairy Tail

So anyways, Space Dandy is, to quote "...a dandy guy in the space", and you can read the synopsis.  This show is animated by the infamous Studio Bones, who did such projects as Darker Than Black, Eden of the East, Wolf's Rain, and Soul Eater to name a few.  On top of that, it's directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, the man behind Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, which gives me the distinct feeling that this show's going to be stylish as all fuck, though this particular entry in his saga smacks more of disco than hip-hop.

I watched the trailer this morning and...well...I think I'll let it speak for itself.

Moving on...the second show I picked out is called Witch Craft Works.

And, before you ask, I can't tell if the title is meant as a statement, or just as a noun >__>

But I digress.  I watched the trailer for this one and gleaned very little, other than that it's a romantic comedy, and it has magic in it.

I did, however, notice that this had a very similar look to one of my favorite shows A Certain Magical Index, followed my nose and found that this show is, indeed, animated by the same studio, J. C. Staff.

So I'm onboard.


Last, but not least, there's Houzuki no Reitetsu

Because I've always wanted to know how Hell's upper management works.  The way I figure, it could be fun.  We shall see...

I checked out Wit Studios, and they were the animation studio behind the ever popular Attack on Titan, so there's that.

Apparently this will be a season with very noble lineage for me.  I'll keep you all posted as I get into this.  And if you see something in the list you like, hear something on the street, or read something on the internet and would like me to investigate, drop a comment, I'd be happy to look into it.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to a productive Winter.

Because I Can't Contain My Excitement...

Lookie lookie what my lovely lady-friend made me for Christmas!

Since, as you all can deduce, I'm more than a little obsessed with Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta, and making a full-length Hime scarf would be ten different types of impractical, I've got my own pair of Akina wristbands!  They're so great!

[disclaimer: that photo was taken in natural sunlight, I promise I'm not that pale...or a corpse]

P.S. - Merry Christmas, friends.  I love all of you! :D

P.P.S - anyone else notice how alike Kotoha and Mari from Evangelion look?

Only About 3/8 Bullshit

I'd like to take a minute to make a quick public service announcement.

For those of you who are keeping up with Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta (and if you're not, you should start...what's wrong with you?) you may have noticed a slight...hiccup in the story.

All of a sudden there's a new character and not a lot of backstory to go with her.  It's a little jarring, to say the least.

Rest assured, this is only about 3/8 bullshit.

As it turns out, the team that does YZQ: HU put together 3 OVAs in 2010 called Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi (coincidentally, ALSO YZQ: HU).  These OVAs cover all of the missing information and serve as the unofficial episodes 9, 10, and 11 (or 8.25, 8.5, and 8.75 if you prefer).

In fact, they fit so perfectly into the hole in the plot, that I'm even willing to subscribe to the theory that the creators of Hana no Uta were saying to each other "Hey, do you remember those OVAs we did that were so popular?  Why don't we just work that into the show.  It'll save us from having to do that whole arc again."

To be completely honest, I don't think any amount of exposition or flashback sequences can do Hoshi no Umi justice.  So...just do yourselves a favor and watch it, there's no reason not to.

Blazblue: Alter Memory

Alright friends, I can't avoid this any more.  It's time to talk about Blazblue: Alter Memory.

Now, you may remember me being really excited about this show back in September.  In fact, it was maybe my #2 most anticipated show for the season (right behind Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta).  I've been watching the episodes semi-regularly as they air and I'm saddened to say that I'm left...unfulfilled.

And now I will make my customary disclaimer and say that the show is not bad per se, but it's really not great.  I think that making Blazblue into a coherent anime was a very ambitious goal from the start.  From what I understand, and from what I've seen in the show, the world of Blazblue has a complex and convoluted lore that we, the players/viewers are just supposed to kinda roll with, and it gets really confusing, really quickly.

Sometimes it reminds me of those scenes in Evangelion where Gendo gets together with the guys from Seele and they talk about what's really going on in the show, but they throw around a bunch of confusing jargon that only they understand (which makes sense, because if they all get it, than why explain it?)  In fact, there happens to be a scene in the third episode that's almost exactly like that.

This one, to be exact

Despite all of this, however, I have stuck with the show and am piecing together a rough idea of what the fresh hell is going on.  It's not fully comprehensive, but it's enough to go on, and I will continue to stick with Blazblue: Alter Memory for 2 reasons:

Does anyone else see the...irony(?) of a cat with all the powers of the internet?

1- It's cool, if absolutely nothing else.  The fighting is really cool to watch (I should hope so, considering it's based off of a fighting game), and I've always liked the flavor of magic-punk feudal/futury aesthetic that Blazblue employs.  I also find myself enjoying a lot of the characters--even the ones I didn't really care for in the game).

2- I feel that this show suffers from what I like to call "Guy Ritchie Syndrome".  It's got a bunch of characters running around doing a bunch of different things, which is very confusing to watch, but then it gets to the end and everything clicks together and...is...awesome.
(So...fingers crossed there!)

Also, for the love of GOD, Hazama...please never take your hat off again, you look like an idiot.