January 29, 2013

Hey there,

Not much going on today.  I did download the FUNimation free app for my phone today.  I have to say that I am really disappointed in it though.  Not all of the shows are available and the ones that are only have at most four episodes to choose them.  I thought downloading it would be a good idea since a lot of the shows I like, have disappeared from Netflix.  I just will have to go through the website like before and watch.  It just doesn't make sense to limit something you are giving away somewhere else. :(! Oh well?

Today I watched Episodes 2 and 3 of "Soul Eater."  This show is about a school where they teach "meisters"  to be able to kill demons (Kishin) to prevent them from making the world evil.  The "meisters use their partners, who transform into weapons to eat the evil souls of the Kishin.  If the partners eat 99 Kishin souls and 1 witch soul, they become death scythes, weapons that can be used by the grim reaper.  The show focuses on a meister named Maka and her weapon/partner Soul Eater, but episodes 2 and three introduce us to some more characters.  Black Star is an assassin death meister who with his chain scythe weapon Tsubaki.  He is really annoying and full of himself and is complimented nicely by Tsubaki's humility and willingness to comply.  In the episode, he goofs up an attack on Al Capone and then refuses to take the soul of a child witch after he defeats her protector.  I found him really annoying.

In episode 3, we are introduced to the Grimm Reaper's kid, Death the Kid.  I also found him annoying because he likes to obsess over stupid things like symmetry.  He has two weapons, sister pistols Liz and Patty.  I thought they were smart and funny.  Death is assigned by his father to retrieve the soul of a watch that has built an army of mummies in Egypt.  After leaving them to check on a painting at home, Liz and Patty defeat the mummies.  Death the Kid returns to find them held captive by the mummy pharaoh who ate the witch's soul and has to defeat it.  The battle looks grim for Death (Ha Ha Pun intended), until he realized the pharaoh mummy's face is not symmetrical, and he kills it.

Death the Kid with Patty and Liz

 

I really find this show interesting and will continue to watch.

 

Later

 



January 28,2013

Hello,

Hope you all are having a wonderful day!  Today I continued watching "Sword Art Online."  Episodes 5 and 6.  In these episodes, Kirito meats up with Asuna again who we haven't seen since they defeated the floor 1 boss together.  Now she is one of the leaders of the lead group and decked out in fighting gear. (We had only really seen her in a hoped cape before.)  The two of them decide to be Sword Art's detectives after a "murder"is witnessed in the "safe area" of the towns where players can only lose health points in a duel.  They question witness, and put together clues.  I was waiting for the "Law and Order"  ba bump bump sound.  But, after the episode 5 cliffhanger where the witness was murdered, episode six has the two sleuths going over the facts.  After Kirito drops the sandwich Asuna made, it all comes together for him and he figures out what exactly is going on.  He races on horse back and confronts the two behind the plot.  They were actually the ones who were "murdered."  They did it to gain a confession of a third member of a former guild who had voted against the majority in a "what do do with a rare item?" vote, because the leader of the guild, Griselda was murdered on her way to sell the object.  In the end, Asuna and Kirito, flush out the real murder of Griselda, her husband Grimrock! He had sent people to kill the three former guild members to put the situation to rest.  That plan was thwarted.  Now Asuna and Kirito can go back to the front to help finish the game.  I thought it was weird to have a who done it? in the relative beginning of the series but after watching both episodes, I liked that we got to see an evolution of their chemistry together.  I just hope Asuna doesn't get pushed to the side or killed off, like other female characters that Kirito has had contact with up until now.

 

Asuna

See you later

January 27, 2013

Hey there, I am still battling my sickness and was able to watch episodes 3 and 4 of "Sword Art Online ". I 'm not sure how he keeps moving up in the game when all they show us is when he goes down to the lower levels to help those people. I understand that he might feel bad because he was a beta tester but I think he could do more by finishing the game and helping the others on the outside. Also, a little peek at what was going on in the real world would be nice. Oh, and if this is a virtual world, why would anyone have the need to get undressed for bed. If you can't feel pain, whys would you feel uncomfortable. Sleeping in your armor should be fine. I was also looking to start a long running series because I usually stick to shows that have 2 seasons or less since my attention span is mostly short. I wanted to start Bleach but to my dismay, it is only available to premium members on Crunchyroll! WTF? Fine, screw you Crunchyroll, I decided to watch "Soul Eater" on Netflix. I thought the show was interesting, funny and the animation was different. It seemed to come right out at you. Opening and closing songs were good too. I will watch some more and let you know what I think. Later.

January 26, 2013

Hi there,

     I was still under the weather and slept most of the day.  I still was able to watch a few shows.
The first show was "Problem Children are Coming From Another World, Aren't They?" Episode 2: Seems like a Crazy Loli in Japanese Clothing"

I had watched episode 1 previously to this blog and thought the series was interesting enough.  A strange half girl/half rabbit named "Black Rabbit"  brings three humans with special abilities to this place called Little Garden where people play games for prizes.  The humans think it's interesting and decided to stay. 
     In Episode 2, we learn that Black Rabbit is part of a group called the No Names, they lost their name and banner when they lost a prize game against a demon lord.  Now they have the crappiest land and not many people to play in the games.  I have a feeling where this show will be heading but as long as they keep it interesting, I'll hang in there.  It appears that maybe they will be giving us a little of the characters backgrounds each episode.  In this one we learned a bit about Kasukabe You as she tried to ride a Griffin for a prize game challenge.

     I also started a series that I have wanted to start for a while now, Sword Art Online.  I wanted to start this because the opening song is done by the singer liSA, who I am a fan.  It was a rare case where I came across a concert of hers on youtube and liked her singing and energy.  This led me to Angel Beats where she did most of the music for that series and even performed concerts as "Girls Dead Monster starring liSA."



 

   I liked the first two episodes although the premise has been done to death.  The game seems similar to the one that "She" plays that her bf "Poketto" got her into, but anyways.  I have a few questions about the series because in episode 2, the characters say that they have been in the game for a month and 2000 people have died.  A month? and the government hasn't stopped this and haven't brought the creator or the game company on charges and released the players?  I would find that hard to believe in real life.  Also, after a month, wouldn't the players physical bodies break down without proper nutrition? Hopefully, that will be addressed.

Have a good day!

January 25, 2013

Hey there,

I've been under the weather lately, but aside from sleeping, this is what I watched.

First, I watched an anime movie.  It was called "Blue Gender: The Warrior".  How would I describe it?  Huh?  Let's just say, at the end of the movie, the two main characters are huddled in the street surrounded by alien "dung beetles" the size of elephants and are they saved? do the escape to fight another day? are they eaten? No!!!!! The alien dung beetles just walk away!  WTF!!!!!! If I hadn't been sick in bed, wait a minute, even so, what a waste of efing time!  Save yourself the agony and skip it.

I also started a new series "Amnesia"  This one was good.  A girl wakes up in a maid cafe that apparently she works at and doesn't know who she or anybody else is.  There is this spirit Orion who states he is the cause for her memory loss and tries to help her figure her life out.  I watched the first two episodes and I liked it a lot.  There are a lot of questions and stuff going on and it makes me wonder what's going to happen.  I have one idea but I'll share that later.  I thought the opening song was cool, too.  "Zoetrope" by Nagi Yanagi.  I also laughed after the credits on the second episode when Orion says "Two men should not ride in the swan boats together" because I totally thought that was odd.  Glad they mentioned it.  Of course, I think we should always do what we want in this life as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.

Hopefully I will feel better soon.

Earl

Welcome!

 

 

 

Hi there,

 

 

     I have been watching Japanese anime for a little over a year and a half. But it seems that I have really gotten into it over the last six months.  I believe that I am just using the anime now for it's intended purpose, which besides the obvious entertainment value, is to escape the problem and hassles of daily life.  At almost forty, I am probably older than most of the people that are into anime, although I don't have any facts or statistics on that.  I am merely basing that on the fact that other folks my age don't concern themselves with it and in fact think I'm a bit odd for an interest that is "foreign".  The few people that I have found that have an interest in anime have seemed to be quite a bit younger than me.  I have a fourteen year old son who liked to watch Naruto and enjoyed Shamen King manga but he has been reluctant to join me in any shows.  This might just be because I am interested in it or maybe because he moved on to another thing, as kids do.

 

     Anyway, I find that I enjoy the romantic comedy animes the most then probably magical/superpowers animes with somewhat realistic settings.  I haven"t actually discarded any particular genre but as someone new to the anime world and Japanese culture, it has been those two types that I find myself leaning towards.  The very first anime series that I finished was "Shuffle."  Who wouldn't want to be Rin?  He is a normal high school boy who has five hot girls wanting him.  It would have been alot better than my actual high school reality. 

    

     I am a Subby, opposite to a Dubby, I guess.  Mostly because I enjoy listening to native actors do their lines in the words that the story was originally written.  I do not speak or understand Japanese, but I have been able to pick up words and phrases just by watching the Subs.  I also feel like, and this is not to demean the English Dub voice actors, but I feel that the native actors convey the characters emotions better.  For about the my first year of watching anime, I only watched the Funimation Dubs on Netflix.  I kind of got tired of hearing the same voices for different characters.  I"ll see if there is a similar problem once I get more than a few Sub shows under my belt.

 

     Well, today I watched two shows.  The first one was "The Pet Girl of Sakurasou"  Episode 14: The Windows and Lights of Christmas Eve.  If you are not familiar with this show, I suggest you check it out.  Especially if you are a fan of romantic comedies. 



 

 

     I actually watched this show twice because I felt there were some emotional moments.  I'll try not to give anything away.  Moshino trying to express her feelings without really understanding them.  Aoyama hinting that she feels a certain way.  Mitsaki offering herself. Jin starting to grow up and accept his feelings. Ryunosuke trying to understand emotions he has never felt before and Sorata coming to terms with his emotions that he wasn't able to see until something happened.  Very well done.

 

     The other show I watched today was "Vividred Operation" Episode 1:First Operation.  this show, like The Pet girl of Sakursou, is a new show this season.  The show opens with a young girl and two things cross my mind.  One, she needs to get off that ledge before she falls and two, if it is cold enough for a scarf, why is she wearing shorts?  This is a show based in the future where the world's energy problems are solved and life is good.  A young girl, Arkane lives on an island with her sister, Momo and her inventor Grandfather, who for some reason (only stated as he didn't make sure something was in phase) gets turned into a stuffed mercat.  An enemy that the grandfather was ridiculed for warning about them in the past now shows up to destroy the energy producing machine.  But he has prepared for this.  He has made a key that turns his granddaughter into a Drum Major with superpowers.  Just making a little fun of her outfit.  Anyway, I'll have to wait to the next episode to see what those are because she saves her friend, who according to her granddad, she has to dock with, whatever that means ;)! 

 

     I thought the character intros were done well and the animation and action was good.  There might have been a little too much of the fanservice, loli crotch shots, but not enough to turn me away like Strike Witches.  This story could be better than that one too.  I'll check out episode 2 when it's available for cheap bastards like me on CrunchyRoll.

 

That's all I have for today,

 

Earl