Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

I wasn’t going to do this, but since every other faggot in the anime blogosphere is, I figure I will as well. I haven’t watched many first episodes of this season, mostly because a good bulk of the shows look boring/terrible/uninteresting. It seems everyone is watching and reviewing those though. Queers. But yeah, I’ve watched 3 shows so far, and here’s what I think about them.

Clannad

4:3 aspect ratio. Why oh why would anyone do this? It’s like pissing on The Last Super, or something.  Questionable decisions by TV stations aside, this is pretty good. I’m not ZOMG FUCKING FLOORED like I was with the first episodes of Air and Kanon, but it may be the fucking 4:3 aspect ratio putting me off again. First episode was pretty brisk, almost too brisk. As far as direction goes I don’t think it’s as good as what I remember from Air or Kanon. Could stand be to slower, but I guess they have to make due with whatever episode count they got. The moe factor is pretty high up there. I’m already head over heals for Nagisa, and all the other girls aren’t looking so bad either. But yeah, can’t wait for episode 2/widescreen episode 1.

Dragonaut

Hey look it’s a mainstream Gonzo show. First episode was serviceable, but hardly gave us any exposition. Has a lot of cliched elements, but that doesn’t really bother me since nothing is original anymore. It stars an emokid called Shinn Asuka Jin Kamishina whose family gets killed in a freak accident. Now he spends his days being emo until he meets a MYSTERIOUS YOUNG GIRL and that is when his life changes. Or some dumb bullshit like that. Yeah, I’m not watching this for story or anything. I just like the Uno Makoto designs. Provided the animation doesn’t get shitty and the story remains somewhat intelligible then I’ll keep with it.

Kaiji

I caught 5 minutes of Akagi late night at Otakon 2006 and thought it was absolutely fucking incredible. Once I find time I need to marathon it. Kaiji is the other manga by the Akagi guy and it’s filled with hilarious character design, gangsters and gambling. And is also totally badass. Yeah, I think I’ll be keeping up with this one. It’s a good change of pace from the stuff I normally watch.

There you go, three half-assed reviews. Time for bed.

And yes, the top image has nothing to do with anything.

It’s actually like really fucking good. I need to watch more than 5 minutes of Akagi eventually.

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 :(

Original Post

I used a tablet to make the backgrounds in this comic. I only just found out my school lets me borrow them for 24 hours, at the low, low price of my ID. While I’m not super good at it now, it was nice and easy to use. Probably faster than using a mouse, too. I think the drawing surface would benefit from having some degree of friction. Anyone know if they make tablets like that? I may need to get one of these. For the mean time though I’ll keep renting them out of the library.

God, Geneon going down feels like such old news now. Well, people are still talking about it, so I guess wasn’t too late to the boat. Gurren Lagann end and School Days end comics coming soon.

The fall season has started, but it sure doesn’t feel like that to me. As far as I’m concerned, the new season doesn’t start until either Genshiken 2 or Kodomo no Jikan start. That said, I’ve seen Dragonaut and have a sub of Clannad on deck. I’ve only seen Dragonaut raw so far. It’s ok. The story and stuff seems to be awfully cliche, but the animation is of a high standard (if not a bit bland.) The main draw from me is the character design. While I don’t really like well-endowed girls (Kotonoha is about as big as I go) Uno Makoto just does them so well. It also helps that this hot onee-san is voiced by mai waifu :3. I was going to hold off for the 16:9 airing of Clannad, but then I’ll miss all the discussion. Why can’t it air in 16:9 right of the bat? Fucking pan and scan

Gurren Lagann recently ended, and it was fucking incredible. I’m kind of the midst of writing a review which may not ever see the light of day. Also working on a post that’ll briefly talk about the ends of Darker Than Black, Zero no Tsukaima and Gurren Lagann, once I’m done shopping this image I need for it. But yeah, if you didn’t like Gurren Lagann you’re not a man. Or something. That was a manly ending.

Alright, I gotta return this tablet before they beat me to death. I’ll catch you wackos later.

How are you liking those shoulders, Last?

I am hard pressed to believe that pre-timejump Yoko is 14.

For some reason the blog just reverted to how it was yesterday. Some posts and new comments got lost. Lets hope it remains stable from now on.

Zonaxx tell me when you’re going to move servers k >:O