momentum for november
Categories: anime, gurren lagann, minami-ke, momentum
Tagged: bamboo blade, clannad, ef, gurren lagann, kimikiss, koharu biyori, minami-ke, moyashimon, potemayo, sketchbook
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My top five list for November: pink, black, yellow, blue, and red.
(In no particular order.)
There’s very few things that I enjoy more than crazy haremable psychopaths in my anime. Bamboo Blade‘s Miya-Miya is fantastic, especially when she’s under bloodlust. If Belldandy gets an one and the Sonozakis get a 100, Miya-Miya is about a 70. The Belldandy-Sonozaki Haremable Psychopath Scale is logarithmic. Back to Bamboo Blade, it’s actually got a good narrative, it’s a great sports anime, it’s got the crazy Miya-Miya, and it’s got Lion-chan. I was tempted to do another Dane Cook/MLB setup, but I decided against it for everyone’s sake.
(Fanservice is good too! Speaking of fanservice, someone awful sent me a Bamboo Blade doujinshi. There are things that make me question my will to live. There are things that prove the darkness that surround us. There are things that I cannot unsee. There are things like Dan-kun and Miya-Miya doujinshi.)
(Blue ain’t bad either! Never has a Power Rangers analogy worked better in an anime.)
(Love Lion-chan’s nickname. Love to see her duel Saber.)
(And it would be epic if Hinagiku became the fifth member.)
ef‘s Miya-Miya need to step up her craziness a bit, but the twin “little sisters” seem to do nicely. At first, I thought Miya-Miya was going to be the crazy one, but as the series progressed, she’s actually the sane one in a cast of lunatics. Kei seems to be a contender for the Kaede Fuyou Memorial Overheated Jealousy Award, and I enjoyed Chihiro’s explosion towards poor Renji. Renji actually means well, so I can sympathize with him. I have no sympathy for the other two “heroes,” Kyosuke and Hiro. Hiro is quite a prick, and Kyosuke is probably one of those post modern types you just want to punch in the face for ruining art. He probably has a Sony Vaio.
(Chihiro’s story and sheep analogy are awesome… creepy awesome… but awesome nonetheless. I got the chills when it got to the part about how the chain is 12 years long, and her arms only extend an extra 13 hours.)
(Most shocking thing about ef is that Shaft has recently toned down the crazy scenes and is animating it more traditionally. It works! Who’d thunk it? Though as I write this, they might be preparing a Zelda tribute for episode eight… OH GEASS NO!)
Not to be outdone, the Kimikiss male “heroes” are even worse. To me, they’re just “The Wimp,” “The Whipped,” and “Too Cool For School.” It’s sad when The Whipped Guy is the most likable. And why are both ef and Kimikiss cramming three (or four) arcs together? Couldn’t they space it out over 78 episodes like Da Capo? Like ef, the three lines for Kimikiss don’t really intersect. At least best case for ef is Miya-Miya getting into a knife fight with Kei, for Kimikiss, I just don’t see any conflict happening.
The high school I went to had three football teams: varsity, jv, and freshmen. I’d say that this was the work of Gainax’s freshmen team. Let’s just pretend it never happened. Pretend this and this never happened either.
Now here’s an OVA that actually exists. I can’t wait for JC Staff to do a second season of Potemayo just so they can sink it like Zero no Tsukaima and hopefully I can leave Shakugan no Shana off of that list.
Don’t have anything to add, so I’ll just share with you Kayne West’s secret “weapon” against 50c.
(I am excluding Gundam 00 from this momentum post since it’s awesome, we all know it’s epic win, it’ll revolutionize the world, make you cooler than an iPhone will, feed starving babies in Africa, cure cancer, convince Iran to give up its nuclear program, decipher the Da Vinci code properly to reveal that Judas was bribed by a nekomimi meido, stop the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, solve the Hinamizawa murders, help the Kansas City Royals win a World Series, patch up every security hole in Windows, but, sadly, it can’t get us another 13 episodes of Umisho with Ms. Wang as the new transfer student. It’s not that perfect.)
My favorite part of Moyashimon has to be the microbes. Microbe Theater is a strong contender for “Best Episode Ending Omake of 2007” along with Lucky Channel and Butler Network. The cast is actually pretty enjoyable… Sawaki and Kei are the overwhelmed stars… Itsuki is the non-traditional esper professor… Haruka is a solid 40 in the Belldandy-Sonozaki Scale… Haruka reminds me of the manager in Ookiku.
Poor Graham Acre. I’m only watching 16:9 Clannad, so don’t bother me with this series. I’m four weeks behind, and I don’t care. I’m turning into a Kyosuke-class art snob.
Yep, YKK with 3,000% more cats. Can someone explain to me why someone who tag Sketchbook as seinen in its Wikipedia entry? Unless the manga has ecchi that didn’t make it…
I picked up Koharu Biyori volume 1, and it’s pretty entertaining for a fanservice harem setup featuring robotic meido. It’s in my specifications. Review maybe forthcoming (manga is a lot better than the OVA, but that’s probably not saying much), if I have time after writing “gundam 00 5″.
19 Responses to “momentum for november”
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Nobody told me about Koharu Biyori before. Seems like a bad oversight.
For some reason it seems like the kimikiss characters eyes are always staring out the screen, I dunno if its the art style that’s weird or they just failed at trying something, but the series is pretty decent so far.
ef is now my favorite series this season.
So I’ve decided I’m going to watch either Gurren Lagann or Gundam 00, please enlighten me on the better choice.
Sadly, I think it might be possible for Microsoft to patch up every security hole in windows before the Royals win a World Series.
Gurren Lagann. Easily. Not even close. Gundam 00 is good, but GL is one of the greatest mecha series of all time. Unless you’re more a fan of the pseudo-religious political drama “Your solar powered Hummer commercial is in my mecha series…” “Your mecha series in in my solar powered Hummer commercial…” style show than the hotblooded in-your-face “This is Sparta” piercing through the heavens GAR set your brain to the side but keep it handy **growls like the guy on Home Improvement** style show.
More importantly, GL is over, so we know it stayed good. G00 is good now, but is still ongoing, and is by Sunrise.
Now excuse me while I go watch some more alcohol-crapping microbes…
GuchukoFeito.
Genyaaflect.
http://damagedgoodz.net/board/.....386433.jpg
Clannad 4 and 5 were great, it turns out that this incarnation of Kyon is quite the prankster, and has a perfect cast of spaced out guys and gals to practice his art on.
What I want to know is… Why would you think Sketchbook isn’t seinen?
Dan-kun and Miya-Miya FTW! These last few episodes have really showed how devoted Miya-Miya is to her man. Shes fantastic. Bamboo Blade has been great.
Moyashimon has also been surprising, as in surprisingly educational. Its National Geographic meets Anime, and it works.
All I can say is, I can listen to KNBR in the morning and not have to hear Dane Cook. That in itself is a Melonpan-send. This IS the Church that Melonpan Built.
Only complaint I have against Bamboo Blade is that I wsh they’d make a fully animated OP instead of scattered footages from the 1st ep… I’m sick of seeing that fat kid’s face during the chorus.
Miya-miya and Dan-kun doujinshi… was she like whipping him in it? On second thought, I don’t really want to know.
On third thought, ok maybe I want to know, I just don’t want to see.
Only way to save SnS2 from the zzzfest is to release moooore Shanatan episodes.
>> “So I’ve decided I’m going to watch either Gurren Lagann or Gundam 00, please enlighten me on the better choice.”
You have to ask? Gurren Lagann wins, hands down. It has more Epic and GAR than all of 4chan’s SaiGar-07 threads put together. Also, it’s a good show.
As poor as the Gurren Lagann OVA was, it had one good moment: “The thought of you two on your own is disturbing!” Good move, Yoko. That was a close one.
@Chumara, watch both.
Gurren Lagann has already finished airing which Gundam00 is just starting, so there should be ample time for both.
Lion-chan kinda reminds me of a less hyper Excel (always a good thing).
I’m probably one of the few people who actually like Shaft’s wierd style. In ef, anyway.
GL ova was lackluster, but I think it did manage to capture the early feel of the series. And did I miss something about Chitori or did Kamina always let random beastgirls play with his gammen?
The first Potemayo special has got to be one of the creepiest things I have ever seen, especially given the implications of its conclusion.
Oh I forgot to mention that you left out the fourth Kimikiss line, the one that feels like it has progressed more and has had more time devoted to it than the other three: the Iwao-Juliet arc.
Major lulz @ Simon’s GAR Cutie Honey performance.
Interesting picks you got there, Jason. I’m going to have to go and check them out.
the true Gurren Lagann ending (what Simon did to Nia after getting caught in bed with Yoko and Darry):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2jZP9wHmj4o
now please excuse me as i go pierce my eyeballs and eardrums and pretend that never happened. gomen… Nia…
As for Sketchbook, it seems like Seinen is turning into a catch-all category for “anything that isn’t obv. shounen or shoujo.” Shounen stuff can have plenty ecchi, so it isn’t that. Frankly, I don’t mind it since I’d rather be associated with, say, Mushishi (not particularly seinen, but it doesn’t fit anything else and Josei is hardly a category at all) than something like, off the top of my head, Elfen Lied.
Sketchbook doesn’t seem to be about anything in particular, and it’s a slice-of-life kind of thing about schoolgirls, so they just tagged it on.
Plus, it was apparently published in a seinen magazine. That might have something to do with it!