Temporal Paralysis

After being freed from my shackles that is National Service (because of the goddamned IPPT requirements — I hate being in PES B), a year has gone down. With only Macross Frontier and Code Geass R2 being my staple of shows for 2008, I decided to cold-start my anime passion by watching the series for Winter 2008/2009. As in, becoming that omnipresent guy in front of his computer… “watching” anime shows… as legally as possible.

(Note: I will be considering watching Kannagi in my plan-to-watch list, because everybody is raging love of it. I’ve already blogged about the two series I’m watching via a local channel. However, Skip Beat! is in serious contention of being dropped. Convince me otherwise, please.)

Maria†Holic

I side with Wakaranai on typing the bloody cross for namesake (FYI you can shortcut it by typing Alt + 0134 on your numeric keypad). Anyway, lots of people are madly blogging it. A premise of finding an eternal yuri partner, a trap in an all girls school, sharp-tongue maid… it has all the feelings of an instantaneous win. Viewers are already drawing into the series like mad, just by its premise. Surprisingly, though, Kanoko is mysteriously charming (her naïve ways are sadly misguided, though). Already I’m liking this.

It must be said that the voice actors were the same ones from the So Long, Mr. Despair (さよなら絶望先生); Shinbo, the bald guy, is also at the helm. SHAFT delivers that final nail on an anime viewer’s head to draw them to this series. Instantaneous win.

Asu no Yoichi

The other comedy show I’m following this season. Although it’s more of a lighthearted fare compared to the above series (I’ve no idea whether this is an original anime franchise, or is based on another material), the story is decent and fanservice are tastefully done. Also, the “fish-out-of-the-water” antics is something I’ve not yet seen for some time (not that there were other shows of similar premises in 2008). With a bushido-minded lanky guy trying to adjust to urban life and subsequently running away from the police… fair enough.

I’m still quite unsure of this one, but I’ll probably be riding on this one for all its run. It is lighthearted, and the voice actors/actresses are well-known for other famous series, so it’s worth taking a potshot at this.

Rideback

This is an interesting premise: give the lead character a crisis, said character goes through it, finds another hobby to pursue on, and rides back to stardom… While the story is somewhat predictable (if it follows an Air Gear pattern), there seems to be what I call a critic’s pick in the anime blogging circle.

Opening sequence credits is done in English, an ode to an ever-growing international anime audience. MELL is singing the OP (although honestly I don’t consider it as a plus). The character designs seemed a bit familiar, and after putting in some thought, I realized — through a good significant other of mine — that the designs are similar to that of Initial D. No wonder.

And, Nana Mizuki is in this. (¬.¬) Go figure.

I’m thinking… I’ll go with the flow with this one.

Black God (黒神): The Animation

I realized that Kuribayashi Minami and Yousei Teikoku are doing the OP and ED, respectively, for the show. WIN! Of course, a good song does not a good anime make.

The show premised on a manga of the same name. Basically, it’s like The One — you know, where Jet Li acted in —. This is also a case of “anime adaptation not following the manga,” as how this guy puts it. I’m probably be heading off to read the manga somewhere else, just to see the vast difference between the two.

Seriously, why does this image reminds me of a certain popular anime series that resulted in one voice actress flying all the way here to just sing?

White Album

Ok, before we get started on this: first and foremost, I do not watch because of Nana Mizuki.

Second: there seems to be pictures floating around the Internets of… lolis. Whenever I turned up searching on some imageboards, lolis are abound. What the… I might as well take this for a ride, too.

Third:  ???

Fourth: I’m just gonna watch this for fun.

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I think this is all I need for this season. I realized that there are also backlogs of anime shows from 2008 that I have not caught up yet. Much to do, and also, I need to watch back all the DVDs I left unwatched. Ugh. Keeping up with the Takamuras is not an easy job for a contemporary anime fan/blogger.

Tags: Anime, asu no yoichi, maria+holic, rideback, white album

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 6:45 am and is filed under Anime, What I'm Watchin. 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.