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

With the dead arts, the forgotten ones, and the old 2007 shows behind us, it is now time to move onto the shows that both began life and ended life in 2008. As usual, I start from the bottom and work my way up…

While we all love anime (we all do, right?) often times we must admit that there is a fair amount of crap amongst all the good stuff. Smart people drop these shows. I don’t. Here’s a rundown of shows that I should have dropped, or shows that just didn’t do it for me, but I finished them against my better judgment.

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Current
Casshern Sins: Great art direction but the writing is so boring. I’m pretty sure Casshern says JUST WHAT AM I in every fucking episode.
ChäoS;HEAd: It’s always super special! I like this one a lot.
Clannad ~After Story~: Hit and miss. Needs more Mei and/or baseball episodes.
ef – a tale of melodies: This is like a Shinbo show except not good.
Ga-Rei-ZERO: I mostly like it. Really dig the opening/ending tunes.
Golgo 13: ….
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: It’s like the writers on this show compete on who can write the crappiest episode.
Kannagi: Yamakan’s direction is great, and the production values are flawless, but the plot stuff lets it down.
Kemeko DX: Nice tits. Humour is hit or miss.
Kurogane no Linebarrels: This show is about man things like robots, tits and giant black men named JACK SMITH who cut airplanes in half.
Kyou no 5 no 2: I guess it’s fine but I still don’t know any of the character’s names.
Michiko to Hatchin: Uneven, but on the whole extremely well done.
Rosario + Vampire CAPU2: This show has moments of genius, actually. Moments of genius mixed with many moments of utter stupidity.
Shikabane Hime: Aka: This show is incredibly trashy, but it takes itself so seriously that I can’t help but take it seriously too. Gainax’s work also really helps it.
Tentai Senshi Sunred: Mostly funny. Some moments fall flat, but mostly funny.
To Aru Majutsu no Index: Pretty entertaining fluff after a string of terrible opening episodes. Let’s hope it stays this way!
Toradora!: I really like this, even though I can’t find a character to like. Taiga is almost cute, but she’s too violent.
Tytania: :V
Yozakura Quartet: This has a really shitty plot, but the direction is ok. Good voice acting, too.
Zettai Karen Children: Not as good as Hayate, but a thoroughly enjoyable year-long show.

Not Current
Windy Tales: Finishing this soon.

Reading
Hayate no Gotoku: Comic version is pretty good so far, but Kenjiro Hata is kind of a bad artist but works around his failings well.
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee: What? There’s only one volume so far? It’s been a year! Where’s volume two :(

I guess I’ll read more of the Tsukuyomi manga soon.

V V V VICTORY

ef- a tale of melodies

While I appreciated the artistic merit in the first ef series, I only half liked it. This is not to fault the geniuses at SHAFT or supervisor Shinbo– I just thought the story was boring half of the time. I came into melodies with lowered expectations, and like most of the sequels hitting this season, I liked it a bit more than the first one. This opening episode focuses on characters who were more secondary players in the first series, and honestly, I’m already finding them more interesting than the goofs we had to deal with in series one. Chihiro was cute, though.

Bonus: ZETSUBOU SHITA!!

Kemeko Deluxe

I enjoy Tsutomu Mizushima’s style, but I think he may be only as good as the material given to him. That said, my experience with him is limited to Dokuro-chan and Dai Mahou Touge. His work in Kemeko carries the same sort of feel present in those two, but much like Dai Mahou Touge, it’s not terribly funny. At least not yet. What really grabbed me here was the character designs and animation quality, which I think are really top notch. Some jarring 3D work is present here, but isn’t much of a distraction. This seems like a show I could potentially like, but it’s not quite there yet. Episode two will probably be better.

Seiyuu fans will go on about how GREAT this voice cast is, but I guess I couldn’t care less? It has a lot of people I like in it, though.

Yozakura Quartet

If there were a list of disappointing first episodes, Yozakura Quartet probably wouldn’t be at the very top, or near the top at all; but it’d be on there. Somewhere. I really wasn’t expecting much out of this, either. At the very least I expected some stylish action, but what I got was pretty bland. There are hints of genius scattered amongst the first episode, but they don’t really come together. At least the character designs are nice, and it’s refreshing to hear a new Round Table Feat. Nino song after a good while. Seriously, what was the last thing they did? I’m waiting for their next album to come out already!

A part VI may or may not materialize depending on what gets subs in the next week. It’s kind of sad that no one’s jumped on Jigoku Shoujo 3 yet, since that one actually looks good.