shark jumping!

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I never heard of the phrase “jumping the shark” until recently, and I was absolutely confused as to what it meant. Then I made a leap of faith and typed in www.jumpingtheshark.com and hoped it was something other than pr0n or an online casino. Amazingly, it was dead on: meaning something (in this case, a tv show) that is really, really past the prime. Sadly, they don’t have an anime category… but no fear! I have a few suggestions:

Full Moon wo Sagashite
I stopped watching around ep 10. At that point, I had a very good idea where the show would end up– namely, it is a rule in anime that all characters must appear in the OP, even if they aren’t used in the show. This is why we see characters in Kenshin’s OP that don’t appear for almost 30 eps… but they are there. Full Moon left out one character from the OP, and you can guess why this character isn’t in the show… yes, confusing… but if you have seen the show, you know what I mean.

Rurouni Kenshin
Speaking of Kenshin, I stopped at the end of the Kyoto Arc. Okay, there’s like 40 more eps after the arc, but after Kenshin fights the second best hitokiri in the land, what else is there? The rest of the series is pure filler– if they advanced Kenshin and Kaoru’s relationship, I can see a reason to watch, but they don’t… just more of the same, only less exciting. No thanks, I’m glad I passed.

Chii’s Fanservice Hour
The third recap episode killed any joy I had in the series. Luckily, the show was licensed at the time so I used that as an excuse to stop watching it.

Onegai Hussy
I started watching this show because everyone else was saying how great it was. Then I realized beyond the fact Inoue-san supplied the lead voice, there was no redeeming quality to the show– and this was only episode 1. I have not encountered an anime cast that I have hated more than the cast of Onegai Hussy.

Love Hina Spring Special
There’s a reason why I don’t own this disc, despite the fact I have all other LH DVDs. The utter lack of production quality put me off– they had tons of possible plot they could have squeezed in, but no, instead they have the cast, including Keitaro, singing for a solid seven minutes. Then there’s the whole issue where Naru’s and Mitsumi’s breasts were drawn like they were waterballoons tied on with string. Luckily, LHA reverted back to the tried-and-true (and non-gross boobs) formula.

What’s jumping the shark next? A lot of candidates…

Gad Guard
“Robot of the Week” syndrome must stop, and fanservice level must increase from, well, zero to something! 3 to 1 odds

Noir 2 Gunslinger Girl
Just remember… everyone loved Noir… then it jumped the shark when people realized that there was no plot and no fanservice, and people turned on it. I feel potential for a huge letdown with this quasi-sequel too. 5 to 1 odds

Full Bonta-kun Panic
Please, please don’t end as lamely as the original did… 20 to 1 odds

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