Gundam Unicorn Sneak Preview Impressions (Generic Post Idea With Unexpected Results?)

5 months I’ve waited and it’s almost here.  Bandai must have known the wait has been a killer for some because a couple days ago they ended up releasing a 7-8 minute preview of the first OVA over the Bandai Channel which eventually made its way to youtube in the clip I’ll be posting below.  First though I want to say what a nice little gift this was as a prelude to Alexandre Bilodeau bringing home the first Canadian gold medal on home soil.  This has been a week of ups and downs for me, but boy did it end great.  Anyhow the embed:

The rest of the article contains spoilers and impressions so this is your chance to look away if you don’t want to watch the preview above.

Time To Barrel Roll Into The Most Hyped Show Of The Season (I Finally Check Out Bakemonogatari)

This Is Your Brain On Drugs….Any Questions?

Honestly I went ahead and gave this show a chance and so far it’s giving me a headache….well at least at first….and yet I still want to see more of it just the same.  I’m perfectly sure there’s something interesting being developed here with regard to Hitagi’s plight and how Oshino is going to try and help her, but I’ll also say that the first episode with that looping music track over the opening conversation in the classroom (annoying and repetitive beyond description) as well as the randomly flashing text and rapidly shifting camera angles for no discernible reason or effect was just dizzying and disorienting beyond belief.  Especially since the parts of the episode that aren’t like that are quite drawn out but also really intense and creepy at the same time with the psycho bitch and well….just the show in general. I know somebody is going to probably tell me that that’s just Shinbo, but I’ll just reply by asking how this necessary and by answering myself with, “probably drugs”.  Other than that bit of “guh-huh” it was a more intriguing and eye-catching start than what I’ve seen most series feature these days, but not by much.

Now what I really did like and found most intriguing about this opener was how the one girl with the glasses (sorry her name eludes me and I’ll probably catch shit for this) sold Hitagi as something completely different then what she is portrayed as upon her first introduction, which helped to greatly enhance the atmosphere of her turning out to have a stationery fetish. Here I am expecting a total stereotype of a Mary Sue and then she just turns out to be a nutcase that doesn’t fit any of the traits she was described as having.  I cant’ even begin to describe how this struck me as an incredibly good thing.  Also Oshino didn’t come across the way I thought he was going to either and ends up being more like a second season Tieria Erde as opposed to the Saji Crossroad I was expecting.  Already we are seeing that the characters seem to have more than one side to them, and that’s pretty good stuff that I would definitely call promising for somebody like me who hasn’t watched much of this highly hyped and praised series yet.

Now to get a little more wishy-washy again though, because let’s face it this is just what I do when it comes to raw first impressions.  I’m really not sure if I like Hitagi’s voice acting yet though, mostly because I’m more used to Chiwa Saito voicing squeaky, peppy, loud and just generally extroverted characters like first season Louise Halevy, Natsumi Hinata, Lavie Head and Rebecca Miyamoto and I think maybe she is too. Also I can’t say Bakemonogatari is likely to be winning any awards on the BGM front either.  I’m probably not going to make many friends for saying this judging by how insanely popular this show is at the moment, but Bakemonogatari probably has some of the most unpleasant BGM I have heard so far this year.  The visual style though……..as much as I may have seemed like I was put off by it before, I am more befuddled, and honestly I like being surprised and then just learning to go along with the ride…..if it doesn’t turn out to be totally insulting that is.  I think I will probably be getting high when I watch episode 2 just to enhance the experience.  It’s the kind of show that seems to warrant it and probably the piece of the puzzle missing in understanding why the points of view and text are so messed up.  I figure Shinbo is probably toking up while he’s directing all of this stuff, might as well indulge him.  It’s just like….whatever it’s a surface right….might as well through some text in there…..attaboy Shinbo!

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody And Haruhi “Season 2” First Impressions

I’ve already said it elsewhere, but this still reminds of the Saki ending albeit less cracked out

Rather then go through all the motions of rejoicing and about how “thine goddess hath returned” and the fact that there’s a new episode of Haruhi, I’m just going right on in and straight up.  Here it is, my thoughts on the new episode of Suzumiya Haruhi sans hype and plus the humble expectations of a novel reader.  Besides those that know me know I don’t really do that stuff anyway…..okay except with Zeus.

Saki First Impression (w/ comparsion to K-On)

Why do I like this girl so much?  Wait…right it’s the Rie Kugimiya factor…it must be!

I don’t get it, if Kyoani is supposed to be inherently prone to bringing out masterpieces and Gonzo is supposed to be inherently prone to bringing out utter failures, then why is Saki’s opening episode so much more enjoyable than K-On’s opening episode?  Granted they both leave a lot to be desired in terms of character development in their openers, as K-On opens cold with little character development and a girl joining a light music club full of other girls, and Saki opens cold with little character development and a girl joing a mahjong club primarily full of other girls, but it seems like Saki hits upon it’s actual premise in Mahjong far more than K-On hits upon it’s premise in light music.

K-ON First Impression

It’s K-On, the hip (?) new anime everybody is talking about.  By god I just had to check it out and give my first impression, I just had too.  Since this is a slice of life comedy that is totally character (?) driven I’m going to be returning briefly to the style I used back when I blogged Lucky Star.  You know….the one done with time blocks and by the moment impressions of the episodes? Here goes:

Impressions for winter 2009 ~ Steel cans, Traps and a whole lot of other things.

What has Klash done to me~~areee~~~

*Coughs* Shamefully this really shouldn’t be tagged first impressions since the trail period should have been way past that but I figured it would just be overkill to make a new impressions tag just for this one post. Alright then, after opting to do things  later rather than sooner (as a part of my usual tradition that has been going on and off)  I will be writing some thoughts on the series I am currently following this season which frankly isn’t many, thankgod. Though rather than giving each series a grade so far since it will be entirely unfair based on my ever fluctuating rating scale depending on how high the moon is up in the sky I will just stick to writing short thoughts for each of the titles (in alphabetical order for your reading enjoyment).

Munto TV (AKA Sora o Miageru Shōjo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai Holy Long Title Batman) First Impression

This Is What They Call A Sudden Scene Transition.  You Better Get Used To These If Your Going To Watch The First Episode Of Munto

I didn’t think it was actually possible for something to pull this off, but I was simultaneously fascinated and yet bored out of my mind by this episode at the same time.  Maybe the former is the result of my natural inclination towards enjoying fantasy stories and the fact that it does seem like the show has some interesting ideas, but my god it couldn’t hold a narrative to save it’s life. 

I found the whole time I was watching it that any time I was starting to get engrossed in a scene to any degree they’d just throw something else random at me or just as randomly switch perspectives from Munto to Yumemi, or Yumemi to the Narrator.  As a result of this in the end it felt like I didn’t get anything of real substance from any of the sides of story other then a few figments of an idea about Yumemi being a Girl of Destiny and that there’s war because an energy source called Akuto is running out.  This is unfortunate, because I also could have gotten that same level of plot exposition by reading the single paragraph plot summary on ANN’s page for the first OVA.  Oh, and that also means almost zero character exposition in the first episode as well since all the time was spent introducing the cast, but none of it on giving us real insight as to their personalities and character traits.  So then….. Yoshiyuki Tomino, you can now hand over your crown for King of Sturm Und Drang plot exposition over to Munto’s director now.  Thank you kindly.

Sigh….anyway, so while I had this nagging desire that I was becoming engrossed in the whole introduction to the world of Munto, I also had an equally nagging desire to say “F*** It!” in really trying to take anything away from it at the end of the day and the latter desire eventually won out at about the 15 minute mark.  At that point my eyes sort of just glazed over while looking at all of the crazy stuff happening, trying to take in what the shows narrative would let me, until eventually the end credits rolled.  I think there might have been a “huh” at that point as I snapped back to full conciousness and wondered exactly what had just transpired.

So the stories a mess at this point, but I did come away with an appreciation for the music among other things which I found to be quite nice.  The animation was also okay, but good animation alone does not a series make and in a lot of places it could be described as simply gratuitous.  The character designs……are a mixed bag for me.  While I am delighted to be freed at the moment from what I thought was going to be an unending parade of that same style of circular facial design with a dot for a nose being used over and over and over in Kyoani’s shows, I can’t exactly say what we got was a welcome departure either since it’s equally as plain.  Overall the character designs are a little skinny for my tastes as well, and this is coming from somebody who liked CLAMP’s designs for Code Geass (The characters in Code Geass looked lanky, but Munto’s look almost emaciated), and Munto, it’s really not a detraction per se, but he just kind of looks like a rejected hero from Nippon Ichi’s Makai series of S-RPG’s.  I do however like Yumemi’s design, even if at some points her blank stare kind of creeps me out.  See the gym scene in particular.

What else…….hmmm not much I suppose.  Truthfully I don’t think there’s anything else that can really be said about this series at this point anyway until they straighten out some of the plot points and actually construct a working narrative for the show.  Time will of course be granted to Munto by me in order for this to hopefully transpire and hopefully what Skyfall tells me about the second OVA (potentially starting with episode 3) being much more structured and focused will turn out to be the case as well.

And that’s all from me for now.  If all goes well I’ll be back Tuesday to say something about the Barack Obama inauguration. 

Rideback First Impression

Unnecessary Slow Motion Mounting Procedures?  This Girl’s Got Style!

Slow start eh?  Well this was the one show that I had expected to reach out and grab me from what I’ve been told, but unfortunately with this first episode it wasn’t able to do that.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t like me, it’s just that it didn’t stand out from the pack anymore than the next series this season.  I guess this is what Megazone 23 would be like if Shogo’s dancer girlfriend Yui had taken his place in discovering the Garland and then ostensibly used it to try and upset the establishment.  I’m definitely getting some Garland vibes from the Scarlet Rideback, although there’s a difference in that one is clearly a transformable mecha to be used as a weapon while the Rideback is a recreational sports and hobby machine.  Oh that and the Rideback is composed entirely of gaudy CG that looks really awkard when you see a clearly traditionally drawn Rin riding on top of it.  Yeah I was pretty much playing spot the CG in the action scene throughout the last quarter of the episode and it wasn’t much of a game.

The Super Dimension Century Orguss (Strangers In A Strange Land)

Even The Promotional Artwork Shows The Effort That Went Into This Series

One of the older Real Robot series I’ve just recently started watching (as a result of Super Robot Wars Z I might add), The Super Dimension Century Orguss is certainly one of the more unique entries in the Super Dimensional series that spanned the 80’s and included such famous entries as the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross.  In fact so unusual is it that the very first scene you even see in the show is of our manly hot shot pilot main character in Kei Katsuragi making out with his lovely woman.  In a way that also sets the tone of thing to come as this series is pretty much full of manly men and attractive ladies, but that’s obviously not all.  Let’s get down to business shall we.

I Ask For More Gaogaigar And They Give Me Mai-Hime In Space

Well, since it doesn’t look like there are going to be any Tytania subs for the next little while I might as well head right back into topics of personal interest….namely mine.  Perhaps though this interests more people then I think.  I’m sure after Code Geass ended many people including myself were asking, “what’s next from Sunrise?”, or at the very least they were looking for the next show with which they could do that thing they do.  Would it be more Gundam? more Mai-Hime (god forbid)?  Both in some bizarre hybrid series?!!!!  Well believe it or not (and I honestly still don’t myself) it’s the latter among those choices.  I guess I should be sort of thankful it’s a new franchise, but on the other hand it continues the recent trend of them trying to make their TV series (as opposed to their OVA’s which are usually specialty productions aimed at a very clear audience) into something for everybody…..with varying results.