Sunday Watchlist 2

It is Sunday again, which means time for another list of all of the anime I have been/will be slaughtering my weekend productivity with. If you are looking for a way to rip the entrails from the corpse of any pretension of accomplishment, get on this.

Eat Man
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=143
I know virtually nothing about this series, other than what I have read on ANN and bakabt, but two things made me want to experience it. First, someone on bakabt described it as having the best hero since Vampire Hunter D, so hell yeah. Second, the characters power to eat metal, assemble it in his stomach, and cause it to appear in his hand later is fucking brilliantly insane.

Eat Man '98
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=143
for obvious reasons, see the thing you just read

Pandora Hearts
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10436
I was directed to this series by a reviewer I trust, and am really looking forward to continuing it after watching the first two episodes yesterday. Hopefully it will not flatten part way in, and keep up the momentum.

Look for an Eat Man/Eat Man '98 double review in the next few days, either for tuesday or for Vintage Wednesday (incorrectly named vintage tuesday in the first post), and learn wether or not watching a lunatic eat metal and guns before manifesting them out of nowehere is as amazing as it sounds.

Vintage Tuesday: 1

Wednesday is, going forward, vintage anime day. Why today? because I wanted to review something vintage and today is Wednesday, so let's give this blog some structure. For my first trick, Galaxy Express 999 (the series, not the movie that summarizes the series). Aside from being one of my all time favorites, and part of my early anime craze/fever/obsession/sandwich, this series is consistently heralded as one of the hallmarks of vintage anime, a true standard. The plot follows the adventures of a young ruffian's attempt to procure life-altering surgery. 

"In a distant future, Tetsuro is a human boy who wants his body replaced with a robotic one. This is possible, but to do so he has to reach the Immortal Planet onboard the space train Galaxy Express 999. Maetel, a beautiful and mysterious blonde woman dressed in Russian style, joins him in the long journey through space. Every episode sees our heroes arriving in a new planet's space train station."

Anime News Network 
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1361

 A part of the infamous Leiji-verse (a collection of ovas, t.v. shows, etc that all occur in Leiji Matsumoto's brain-child contiguous universe), this show dazzles in several ways. The art is ahead of its time in style and detail, with innovations that mirror film in everything from lens flares to motion tracking, while simultaneously detailing an ethereal and surreally beautiful background for all of the events to play out on. Character design strikes an excellent balances here as well, with the soft lines and enlarged features of the era coupling with realistic movement and empathy inducing expressions of emotion in body movement and facial expression. Seeing such prototypically beautiful and yet relateably human characters move through a soft, inviting space of childhood dreams proves to be a visually stunning experience. 

Character and thematic development is the other central element of this vintage badassery. On one hand, the characters possess a certain linearity in their goals and motivations. This is more of a strategic decision than laziness in construction, however, as the different motivations and overriding goals in each of the central characters serve as psychological profiles of different real and very intense human motivations. Also, the reactiveness of the characters to significant events throughout the series is presented in a manner that testifies to their authenticity as well as their emotion range; few series will make you feel so much for the characters victories and failures, their suffering and happiness. 

This is an anime that requires you be in for the long haul, plot often circles around minor events and their emotional ramifications, but major crisis and action are present with sufficient frequency to maintain steady plot movement. Either as a historical piece, a visual festival, or an emotional ride-along, this anime will not fail to satisfy any but the most "modern animation driven" watcher.

Sunday Anime Watchlost

It is a Sunday, I do not have to work, it is time to anime hard for the day. Here is what I will be watching today, and the order (if I have time for all of it)

Dragon Drive
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1167

Aoi Hana
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10672

Neo Ranga
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1052

Kurogane Communication
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=335

Martian Successor Nadesico
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=42

and, time permitting

Martian Successor Nadesico: the motion picture - prince of darkness
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1010

and to think, i was going to spend the day playing torchlight 2

Since I'm not popular, I'll write a review.

WataMote is todays anime of choice, a slice of life title about a seminal favorite subject, the schoolgirl. The existence of a schoolgirl as subject is about the only typical thing about this show, however, as it strays far from the normal tropes of slice of life anime. The first thing that struck me about WataMote (because it is the first thing I saw) was the opening theme. I have little familiarity with Japanese metal, but if this theme is any indication, it is awesome. The track is Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui! (No matter how I look at it, it's you guys' fault I'm not popular!) by Konomi Suzuki and Kiba of Akiba, and delivers a ridiculously energetic scream/shred fest of pure angst goodness, coupled with some visuals of a similar tone, perfectly contrasted to the frequently calm feel of the day to day episodes. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what about this intro was so compelling, but the energy strikes such a …okay shut the fuck up right? It's the cool song people. The episode titling is somewhat unusual as well, taking the form of the title of this review, with the independent clause changing (she does not write anime reviews). This format not only gives a moderate indication of what absurd struggle for friendship will be in the episode, it also reminds the watcher of the constant feeling of isolation the main character lives with. between these two features, it becomes easier to feel for her each episode, and so far we have not made it past the introduction.
    Moving to the substance of the show, the average episode is a 3rd person follow of the primary character's attempt to become socially active, or even make a friend in the first place. Their is very little dialogue for the majority of these scenes, which means that almost all voice is internal monologue from our (not really) hero. Not only does this pull the watcher even more into her psyche as it struggles to mature, it allows insight into the margins of her feeling of isolation. This is the strange tension that makes the show so hit and miss depending on your preferences; integration with her struggle makes the expectation of advancement or success unavoidable, but that expectation is constantly denied. This series is short, but even shorter is the plot development, which stays limited to constant failure and optimism in the face of it. Wether or not this is a valuable plot point (because there is only one) is too philosophical a question for casual reviews, and does not really effect the shows entertainment factor. Instead, simply watch it if you are looking for something unusual in format that fly in the face of normal paradigms of plot development and you will certainly enjoy it. If you don't, I do not really care, I did and I get to write the reviews. unless you want to write reviews. hit me up yo.