Gurren Lagann, Darker Than Black and Zero no Tsukaima

The fall season has started, and I don’t really care. Nothing starts for me until either Genshiken 2 or Kodomo no Jikan air. So instead of looking forward, I’ll reflect on three shows which have recently ended.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

I can’t really stress how awesome this ending was. If Diebuster was interstellar, Gurren Lagann is intergalactic. What I really love about Gurren Lagann was how far it came in its 27 episodes. Fitting 50 episodes worth of development while keeping good pacing into half that time is no small feat. I really don’t have much to say about this that’s not fanspooge. It just rocked. Also, the people complaining about the ending totally don’t get the point. I may expand upon that in a podcast that may or may not happen.

Darker Than Black

I’ve had it out for this show ever since it started. Bones isn’t a very good studio beyond its production value, I think. They can make things look fairly pretty, but when it comes to entertaining me, they fail. Darker Than Black was just boring. It had some ok episodes here and there, but for the most part it felt like an uninspired mishmash of elements that didn’t quite work. What kept me watching this was the fairly awesome cinematography (at times. I can’t help it, I dig cityscapes) and Yoko Kanno’s music. The show had some entertaining characters, but they didn’t get the exposition they deserved. I was kind of put off by the super power part of the show, since I fucking hate super powers unless they are ridiculously over done, (see: Giant Robo, s-CRY-ed.) but as it went on, I thought it kind of worked. Didn’t save the stories from being boring, though. Actually, the biggest problem with this was its episodic nature. The last couple of episodes try to start a story, but when it runs into the wall at episode 25 it just packs up and goes home. A lot of shit is left unexplained, and I’m left unsatisfied. So yeah, Darker Than Black kinda sucked. At least it was pretty. Also, needed more Yin.

Zero no Tsukaima II

For some reason people were getting on this show’s case for having a shitty story. Honestly, who watches porn for the story? Seriously though, this show is not meant to be taken seriously, so I don’t see why people were. Right up to the end, 0nT II delivered laughs, boners and serviceable drama. It didn’t really deliver when it came to plot, but when it came to everything else, it was totally entertaining. That’s what cartoons need to be: entertaining, and this show was really fucking entertaining, even more so than the first one. I’m really happy about the screentime given the Siesta and Henrietta this season. That’s probably what made it for me. But yeah, novel purists go elsewhere. This show is for people who like to have a good time 

Ok time to watch more animes

note: top image is a shop of a piece of fanart. Please don’t kill me, original artist :(

3 Comments