Between mediocre anime and really great anime lies one’s comfort shows. These are shows that generally don’t aspire to much, but do their thing well. At the same time, there are also shows which fall short of their expected potential, but are still quite entertaining regardless. Here’s a list of 2008 shows that fall into either of those categories.
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Daryl Surat lays down the law on Macross Frontier as I sit down and listen because I don’t know anything about Macross at all! Also, I was podcasting from a secret location, constantly afraid of a security guard breaking in and arresting me for communicating with terrorists.
Actually the whole point of this was just getting Surat on so I could use AWO’s thoughtbird. I didn’t even like Macross Frontier that much!
Guest
Songs
Really, one has to wonder if these two are even friends, considering that they never seem to have a nice conversation with each other. One also has to wonder why Hikki has an Ideon poster. And why him and Rets share the exact same expression. I kind of like this comic. I don’t like it as much as the last one, but I still think it’s ok.
A podcast happened earlier on in the week. I talk with omo and lastarial about 5cm Per Second. It’s a pretty good episode, so you should listen to it.
I’ve signed up for Project Wonderful. It’s working pretty decently right now. Please bid on this ad space if you want it. That’s all I got to say.
Real life’s been making pretty harsh assaults on me as of late. I’m trying my best to find some work for the next two and a half months. I need some money for various personal endeavours. One’s quite big, and other is quite… small, and cute, and probably smells good. Hopefully these three applications I’m filling out at the moment will get me somewhere. I just need money, man!
Lots of summer shows are coming to a close, and the fall season is just about a week away. Zero no Tsukaima season 3 ended in usual 0nT fashion, in that in crammed way too much into one episode and nothing was resolved. But hey, you don’t care, since Louise is hot, Siesta is hot, and Tiffania is hot. That’s what really matters. Nogizaka Haruka ended pretty well, albeit predictably. One thing that kind of bothers me about the series is how, even in the last episode, the animation never got back onto the level that it was in the first episode (and arguably episode 7.) Hopefully they’ll cleanup the show for DVD. It certainly doesn’t look bad, but it could stand to look better. Both Koihime Musou and Macross just ended, but I haven’t gotten around to them. Macross hasn’t been subbed yet, and I haven’t had time to get to Koihime yet. But I will.
Windy Tales is pretty interesting. I thought the first two episodes laid on seriousness a bit too much, but episodes three and four had a good slice-of-life vibe about them. I can appreciate the art style, but I’m not really sure if I like it. I’m going to stick with it, even though I’m not totally sold on it.
That’s all for this week. I don’t know what I’m going to do for next week, but with luck we’ll see an update.
I could have sworn this said SHERYL NOME
This train was apparently going to a very special place!
Spore was taking over Harvard Square station.
Found this… thing in Newbury Comics…
…and I found this goddamned thing in Tokyo Kid.
Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: Pretty easy to catch up on considering each episode is only three minutes. I watch them in sets of four here and there.
Code Geass R2: Oh lawd.
Golgo 13: ….
Hidamari Sketch x365: This show almost has the best Shinbo opening ever. Almost, since the best Shinbo opening is the second SZS opening. Neko Mimi Mode gets an honorable mention.
Koihime†Musou: Still junk food. Half-way done.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Yuuko Gotou is a butterfly girl. Win.
Macross F: I kind of don’t care anymore. Not like I don’t like it, but eh. Who cares.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Has slipped into being kind-of-sort-of generic, but I don’t care. It’s done well and I’m actually archiving the episodes!
Sekirei: I can enjoy me some tits, too.
Slayers Revolution: Where is it.
Strike Witches: Still the best of the season.
To Love RU: SAIGO NO CHANCE NOW IS THE TIIIIIIIIIIIME. Better than Rosario+Vampire.
World Destruction: Disposable action series. Has Toru Furuya.
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~: Almost as good as season two. Kind of slipped down into season one level of good.
Zettai Karen Children: Plot’s getting pretty intense.
Birdy is on hold.
Will write about the upcoming season soon. Lots of regular looking stuff.
Man I love how Alto makes this face in like every single episode.
And good lawd, what won’t he make a paper airplane out of??
This episode was pretty good, but the twist at the end had me lawlin’. What a soap opera!
Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: I’m almost confident that I have not seen an episode within the past month. Oh well.
Code Geass R2: Feeling really Gundam Seed Destiny at this point. The stupidity is actually getting to me now.
Golgo 13: ….
Hidamari Sketch x365: Liking it better than season one, possibly because subs are coming out regularly and the episodes are slightly faster paced.
Koihime†Musou: Junk food anime. Tasty but forgettable.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Fun to watch– a curious mix of serious stories with comedy-like execution.
Macross F: Uh, I have no idea what this show is about anymore, I just like Ranka Lee. Sheryl can die in a fire etc.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: I support anime about hot otaku girlfriends.
Sekirei: My Kanokon for this season– well produced fanservice fluff.
Slayers Revolution: Fun fantasy series– want to get around to the originals eventually.
Strike Witches: DELICIOUS FLAT CHESTS CROTCHES AND PANTIES ALL OVER DEAR GOD BEST OF THE SEASON
Telepathy Shoujo Ran: Ok kids thing. Have three episodes waiting to be watched– if they suck I’ll drop it.
Tetsuwan Birdy Decode: I liked the first two episodes… where’s the rest??
To Love RU: Why can’t THESE types of Jump shows run for 100+ episodes?
World Destruction: Has turned into a surprisingly fun adventure/fantasy series. Completely disposable, but I like it.
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~: Girls, girls, GIRLS!
Zettai Karen Children: Watching it raw at this point. Hopefully Chihiro will continue on with it now that Deculture has folded.
Dropped Natsume Yuujinchou because it sucked.
Sitting on a bunch of DVDs and manga, too.
Man, so much anime, so little time. I work 40 hours a week, dammit!
Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: Good ol’ cartoons
Code Geass 2: Best part of my week.
Golgo 13: ….
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: I’ve finally accepted the fact that this is not a comedy. It still works, but I like it less than I initially did.
Macross Frontier: Consistently entertaining. Though honestly, I just watch it for Ranka and space fights.
Telepathy Shoujo Ran: lol kids show. Like the psychedelic effects.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann music videos: Entertaining little diversions.
To Love Ru: Wonderfully entertaining boobalicious fun.
Toshokan Sensou: Kind of badly written, but it’s a not-boring IG show.
Zettai Karen Children: It has faults, but it’s just too entertaining to not like.
Waiting for other things to start.
Manga
Read a bunch of stuff. Keroro Gunsou is great and I wish I read it 5 years ago and the Hayate manga is just the anime with more stylized art. Moving on to a vampire triple-play with Blood Alone, Karin and Tsukuyomi.
Image stolen from here. Please don’t kill me original artist.
Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: Cat.
Code Gayass R2: Even more over the top! And they said it couldn’t be done…
Golgo 13: Man this is some trashy stuff.
Kanokon: Man this is some trashy stuff. With heart shaped nipple covers.
Kurenai: IT’S GREEEAAAAT. The end of episode 9 was a bit wonky, but this one is still the best.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Liking it less. The episodes seem kind of thrown together and the direction is poor. Maybe it’ll get better.
Macross F: Ranka is still cute. The CG is still good. Story is moving kind of slow, though.
To-LOVE-Ru: Wow, way behind on this one. Still, good harem fun that’s worth catching up on.
Toshokan Sensou: Getting a bit too serious. Still, it’s a Production IG show that’s actually good! They haven’t done that since IGPX (shutupitsagoodshow)
Zettai Karen Children: As good as Kurenai but for totally different reasons. So cute~. The story stuff is silly, but who cares.
Not so current
Nadesico: Kind of got stuck at episode 18. I’m enjoying it, and I can see why it’s an anime staple, but I’m not totally in love. It seems like its obsessed with fitting in AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE into 25 minutes sometimes. I don’t see the genius that dm sees in it yet.
Dropped
Allison and Whatever: Not like I don’t like it, just I noticed I was behind by 3 episodes and didn’t really feel like catching up.
The last episode of Miina is finally subbed. I dropped off at episode 8, so I’ll marathon the last 3 at some point.
Will finish Baccano after this post.
After Nadesico I may watch Planetes since I realized I own it all and haven’t finished it. Whoops.
As expected, this comic came out late due to my moving back to DC for the summer. It also suffers from post-trip fatigue since the art is worse than usual, but that’s also affected by the fact that I tried to copy the Macross F style and failed. It seems the guys actually making the show are failing with that too, so I’m not all that bothered. That one colouring error in panel 3 is really off-putting, though. As far as scripting goes, I figure I’m allowed one stupid comic a year, and I really wanted so make something about Alto’s obsession with paper airplanes. Did you see the focus he was putting into making that one in episode 6? Seriously. Guy has a problem.
Instead of making two comics this week to make up for the missed comic last week, I’m just going to skip a comic since if I made another comic now it’d just turn out looking bad. I just need to relax for a bit now.
Not much going on this week, so I’ll get on to Kurenai and Kyouran after I post this stuff up. Later.
rant title taken from here
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