Anime

Memo to me:

If you have a 10-page paper and two exams due within the next 24 hours, don't make the mistake of starting a new anime. It will not turn out well for you

Yes it will, don't lie to yourself.

SO

this seemed to be a thing that people who run blogs like to talk about, and it is places like this that give me ideas of what to watch next. Of course, it is also just very convenient for keeping tabs on all the anime I have watched, so without further ado, let's begin:

Black Rock Shooter: yes, this was my very first anime. I didn't really know what I was going to think of anime back then, so I went in with a bit of skepticism. I then proceeded to watch all 8 episodes plus the OVA in under 24 hours. Without trying to spoil too much, it is a mind-bender, shoot-em-up anime that makes you think about your interactions with people, about how acceptance or rejection can shape you. My only real complaint about this show is that it Wasn't Long Enough. Did they get the message across? yes. Did they wrap everything up? yes. Does it feel like they could have done more? Yes, yes it does. They could have put more characters in, they could have made more conflicts and combat.
Oh well, great anime.

Claymore: The world is terrible and infested with demons, and the only way we can combat them is by paying these partially-demonic girls with giant swords to kill them for us. This anime was a really bloody one, but also managed to have a good underlying story. Given that this was based off a manga that wasn't extremely popular, the anime is actually 'incomplete'- it cuts off right before the series second timeskip, and before the titans really start to clash. Still, it was a decent anime; i just wish they would have given it a second season.

hmm. I am beginning to see a trend here...

Deadman Wonderland: This anime is a great example of where the environment and secondary characters actually appeal more to me than the main character of the story. Centered around a 'theme park' prison in the remains of what used to be Tokyo, this series follows rippling of the true show that goes on far beneath the spectacle city. It is focused on one Ganta Igarashiri, who gets sucked into this underworld and forced to participate, which would be a great storyline except for one little fact- I hate him. Ganta spends almost literally the entire show bemoaning the fact that he shouldn't be there, forcing everyone else to pretty much carry him.
I realize that Ganta is supposed to represent the everyman, the common person thrown into unusual circumstances, but just the way he is portrayed pisses me the fuck off.
Other than that, the show is fucking awesome. I love most all of the background characters, and actually plan to cosplay one of them, Senji. Other favorites include Minatsuki, for being her little psycho self, and Makina for being a badass who takes no one's shit.

I am missing one here, I feel like

Black Butler: umm, yeah, still haven't actually finished this one
Working on it.

Pet Shop of Horrors: This anime was So not long enough- it had exactly 4 episodes. That's it. Four. It deserved a lot more than that, but I guess it didn't get enough attention, and therefore, funding. In short, a show detailing the weaknesses of man, his inability to follow simple instructions simply because he feels he knows better, and his inevitable downfall. The pet shop is one I would love to find in Chinatown, but that may be a bit difficult.

Girls und Panzer: A brief rewrite of history, in which the bulk of major events stay the same, but now there are massive city-schools on what essentially amount to aircraft carriers, and there is a sport that is essentially tank warfare. A brief relapse from the darker animes that I seem to watch.
It't funny- my brother complains that I watch too many dark shows, but when I try to break that mold he tells me that this new anime is stupid...
anyhoo, decent anime, definitely fun, wish that sport was a real thing

Obviously, this is not comprehensive, but I feel it would be a waste of time to list all the shows I've watched until I am actually done with them (black butler was a freebie). So, until I am done with a show, I will not list it.

Exception: One Piece, because let's face it, if Oda lives long enough to finish the series, it will probably take another 6-10 years. Not that I am complaining.

Everybody wants to be like TS up in this bitch

Everybody wants to be like TS up in this bitch

yes

everyone wants to be like TSDZPresident

you didn't need to say it twice

you are not kanye west


ANYWAY

forgot to mention this one in earlier post
Blood+: different take on the vampire mythos. amnesiac girl walks about life with adopted family, and then the vampires attack someone close to home, and the government turns up and tells her she is the only one who can stop them. From there, blood. looots of blood.
And, for once, I was actually satisfied with the ending. A little bittersweet, a little sad, a little hopeful, and all loose ends tied up. I did like


Aaaand I finished Black Butler: young boy was kidnapped and tortured, so he made a bargain with a demon- he gets revenge on those who wronged him, and when he is satisfied the demon gets his soul. It was a good anime; I could have ended it at the first season and been perfectly okay. Second season was...interesting. Ciel, I can stand, sometimes. Alois? die. I get that your childhood was fucked up, but you piss me off on a personal level.
Other than that, the butlers. Everyone coos over Sebastian (Ciel's butler and arguably the most important character of the series) but I actually preferred Hannah. Everyone thinks she was just the obligatory anime tits character, but when I thought about it, she was probably the most clever and successful of the three butlers, and the only butler who got what she wanted in the end.

On my plate now:
Ergo proxy
Corpse Princess
more One Piece

And on my list?
.
.
.
Yeah, I'll get back to you on that

I didn't post it twice, it must have been some weird forum error

Wake up, TS

The Matrix has you

Follow the red spider

O-K

Corpse Princess/Shikabane Hime is done
let's get my usual complaint out of the way: IT WASN'T LONG ENOUGH!!
phew, alrighty then, moving on

Shikabane Hime is an anime about death, and people who can't accept that they are dead. Said people fuck up the world royally, forcing other people to kill them. Thing is, only a special breed of said 'Corpses' can kill the fuckers. This story follows one such individual.
Here's what you need to know about this anime: Nothing is okay, everything is terrible. Don't trust people in authority; power corrupts. The Government lies to you; priests lie to you, too, and both will say it is for your own good. People are just people, with all the flaws and facets that entails. Magic exists, and its price is pain.
Decent anime, but far from a favorite. Also, apparently it went a completely different direction than what its base anime did. Normally, this would piss me off, but I was introduced to the anime first, so that is the version I go off of.

Now just have to finish Mirai Niki. God, isn't That a wonderful anime

On another note: rating of Ergo Proxy has been indefinitely suspended

So

Anime goals before I go back to school on the 25th:

catch up on as much One Piece as possible
Finish Ergo Proxy (I owe it that much)
Finish Mirai Nikki
Finish La Corda D'oro
Get through the first season of Rosario Vampire

aaaaaaand that's all I got.
For now...

Boku no Pico

only 3 episodes, you can totally make it through that in no time. I sure did... lazy TS quit after 2 episodes, third is totally the best though.

Under no circumstances will I watch Boku no Picu

To be fair it'd be a good joke one to watch. Least it's only 3 episodes, am I right?

What part of 'under no circumstances' did you misunderstand?

I'd watch it with those who have already watched it if you paid me my weight in chocolate

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.............................................................................well,

It seems you have found exactly *ONE* circumstance under which this would occur

Get out the checkbook, 'cause this one's gonna cost ya

Oookay. It has been a looooong time since I posted anything on here. Honestly, I don’t know why, it’s not like I’m not on here on the time. But, here we are, and here we go:

I made a list of things I wanted to get done before classes started, if you remember. Well… that didn’t quite happen. Mirai Nikki and Rosario Vampire yes, but I did not even start on Ergo Proxy, and didn’t finish La Corda at all.

Sighs. All right, let’s do this

La Corda D’oro- I’m just going to accept the fact that I am probably not going to get through La Corda. It’s not that it is terrible, in fact it’s kind of beautiful. It has great art, lovely music, and fantastic characters and development. So why can’t I get through it? No clue, other than the fact that the last six episodes or so are fucking sad hours.

Anyway, the basic plot of the story is that there is a school, inhabited by a magical fairy who wants to hold a music competition, but no one can see him. Into the equation stumbles Kahoko Hino, who happens to be able to see the fairy. Thus, she inadvertently kick-starts the competition and gets dragged, kicking and screaming, to compete, having been granted a magic violin. While the series starts with Hino being incredibly reluctant to compete, she slowly begins to enjoy playing, and taking it very (perhaps too very) seriously.

Oh, and there is a ridiculous amount of romance development between Hino and the other competitors. It is almost stupid sometimes, but considering that the anime was based off of a relationship development game, I suppose that makes sense.
Yeah, if I can finish this I will, but don’t hold your breath.

Mirai Nikki- Watched this with TS, Best, and Grave. It is a great mindfuck anime, and a fantastic watch with plenty of plot twists.

In the interest of not giving out spoilers, I will keep the description short. Basically, Deus, the Lord of Time and Space (God, essentially) is holding a tournament between twelve individuals to find out who will take his place. This ‘survival game’ is made all the more interesting by the fact that each of them has been granted a diary that allows them to predict the events of the near future. Protagonist: Yuki Amano. Best characters: Yuno Gasai and Minene Uryu

It is definitely worth mentioning that this is one of the few anime that I have been completely and utterly satisfied with. I didn’t feel like it needed more time, and I don’t think anything was missed. All loose ends were tied up, and the ending was absolutely beautiful, especially when the OVA is taken into consideration. All in all, probably one of the best anime I have seen thus far, and it is definitely one of my favorites.

Ergo Proxy- I first picked up Ergo Proxy at an anime convention in KC. I watched the first couple episodes, and I really liked it, but for some reason I had a really hard time sitting down and watching it. So, I decided to take it on vacation to see if I could power through a few episodes on the road.

Aaaand then the discs were lost, along with all the others in the carrier.

Yeah, that’s why I haven’t been watching Ergo Proxy: the discs were lost while I was on vacation. Valuable lesson learned: if you really value a movie, don’t take it somewhere you can’t go back and get it if you lose it.
I’m going to finish the series, but it will have to be on an anime site. I am a sad 

Rosario Vampire- Already finished the first season of the anime, watching the second. Out of curiosity, I started reading the manga- Iiiiii fell in love with it. I read the whole thing. And I noticed something: they are the same, but they are not the exact same: The manga is darker, and has a lot better development, while the manga focuses primarily on the romance aspect (which isn’t bad, just different). I prefer the manga personally, but both are still great.

Rosario Vampire is about an ordinary high school kid who accidentally enrolls in a school for monsters. In trying to hide his racial identity as a human and just trying to get through school, he manages to meet a variety of monster girls, most of whom try to kill before being defeated and subsequently befriending them. Also, they all tend to fall in love with him, and squabble over him constantly. Hilarity ensues.

Let’s see, in the end we have: a vampire, a succubus, a witch, a snow fairy, and another witch, in addition to a host of fun secondary characters.

Great story, great characters. I think I have heard people saying that the voice casting of the English dub was terrible, but I have seen no problem with it.

Final note: I much prefer the story and development of the manga, especially where tsukune is concerned. If you want to know why, read, watch, and compare.

Soul Eater: I actually bum-rushed this one and had to force myself to slow down, mostly because I watched 30+ of the episodes in under a week. Not good when you have school work that needs doing.

Soul eater follows the students of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, where meisters/technicians learn to fight using weapon partners (people who possess genetics that allow them to literally turn into weapons) in order to battle evil humans, witches, and generally help the surprisingly chill Grim Reaper, Lord Death.

In particular, we follow three teams: Maka Albarn and her Scythe Partner, Soul Eater Evans, Black Star and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, and Death the Kid (Lord Death’s son) and the Thompson Sisters, Liz and Patty. Maka is the leader of the group, as well as the primary of the 7 protagonists.

I loved this show (obviously- I watched over half the series in a matter of days), but I have to say the ending kind of just pissed me off. Not that it was necessarily ALL bad- it just didn’t follow everything that the series had shown us up to that point.
I already decided to read the manga, so don’t even go there.

Soul Eater Not: This is supposed to be a sequel to the original Soul Eater series, but there are some time discrepancies. Anyway, I haven’t actually finished this one yet, but it focuses more on the 90% of the students who come to the DWMA not to learn to fight witches but simply so that they can learn to control their abilities.

This story focuses primarily on Tsugumi Harudori, a young girl with weapon powers who isn’t quite sure of why she is here, other than the fact that she doesn’t want to hurt other people by accident. She is also stuck between two different meisters, and can’t choose one exclusively for fear of hurting the other.

You also see a number of characters from the original series, just slightly different and younger. Example: we see Maka literally episode one, and she serves as an inspiration to Tsugumi.

It is in the same world as Soul Eater but it is just… well… Not. Don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just the truth. Much more light-hearted, a little less focused on combat overall, but still pretty epic.

Hellsing: classic anime about an organization that hunts vampires, using a more powerful vampire to get the job done. It’s an older anime, and the art reflects that. The story is good, but it still seems, I don’t know, flat. It has a good plot, but it is just hard to follow.
Primarily watched this so that I would feel like I know things when I went to watch the remake, Hellsing Ultimate. Will probably post more about that when I finish, because I like it more. Better art, more intelligible story, the works.

And that’s all for now. Sorry I haven’t kept up. Please don’t think poorly of me

Easy way to tell if an anime is some serious shit: the videos can't be regularly viewed on Youtube

Example:
Soul Eater Not: all episodes can be freely watched by anyone on youtube
the original Soul Eater: You have to sign in to confirm that you are 18 or older to watch them at all

weird, but there you go

Why do I like First Lieutenant Rip Van Winkle from Hellsing?

She has literally no redeeming qualities aside from the fact that, like a slew of other people, she met with a very bloody demise.

Why. The. Actual. Fuck. do I like this character?

That moment when you are watching an anime, and it's awesome,
but then it stops short

and you find out that there are two more episodes that never got translated

and you are just sitting there like, 'really?'

What anime specifically?

Hellsing Ultimate

Everything was dubbed up to episode 8
Fine

I watch episode 8
ends in cliffhanger

and just from what I've read I'm like, there is no way in hell that's how it actually ends
so I get a hunch
and search hellsing ultimate in the subs

sure enough, there are two more episodes to watch
they just weren't available via dub

Me watching the first five minutes if Hidan no Aria: I don't under-fucking-stand

Anyhoo, let's see

Soul Eater Not: Okay, yeah. this anime was one i thought was going to just be a light-hearted, slice of life anime, but the last few episodes were really kind of dark. Also, the main villain successfully initiated a plan that was absolutely brilliant, and I almost can't believe that she was taken down by a couple of first-years (oh, come on, that's not even a spoiler)
But yes, this anime was entertaining, and while it certainly wasn't the original, certainly had its own charm. And unlike the regular series it actually felt wrapped up- not Done, not like it was completely over, but that the story had come to a respectable conclusion, and the next one could begin.

Rosario+Vampire Capu2: okay, i won't say this anime was bad; much like it's first season it was much lighter than the rather dark manga that gave birth to it. Thing is, that particular darkness is what made the manga so goddamn good. couple of other things: unlike season 1, which was pretty true to the manga storywise, season 2 stopped following the manga after about the second episode. Understandably, the anime came out in 2008, and the manga just finished this year, so they kind of didn't have the luxury of waiting around to see its conclusion. they had money to make now. Still, ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Finally, the biggest problem I have with this anime is that the finale was So. Fucking. Rushed. for one thing, rosvam should have been longer to begin with, but when they completely deviate from the normal story line 11 episodes into a 13 episode season, and then try to wrap up all loose ends within the literal last 3 minutes of the show, it just doesn't work. no way
I can admit the series was amusing. Despite what people say about the dub VAs, I actually did like the voicing of pretty much everybody. Still, the manga's darker qualities are what made it special, and they probably should have let the manga get closer to completion before they attempted this anime, because as it stands, I just feel cheated.

*Me re-watching claymore*

Miria: These five people are the most powerful and dangerous in the organization- don't fucking go near them

Clare: Kay

meets three of them in the next ~four months


*Flashes back to the meeting*

Miria: This one is especially nasty, and loves to push your berserk button so she has permission to team-kill you. Whatever you do, don't go ANYWHERE NEAR HER!

Clare: Kay

Literally two missions later, gets paired with that exact fucking asshole


*Shakes head*