Protoculture: Anime Adventures pt.2

rdaniels — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:14:00 GMT

Since my previous blog seemed to go over pretty well, I thought I'd make a continuation of sorts. Lest it be a rehash of what has already been done, I figure I can expand it a bit as well.

Topic #1: Anime

Since I liked Lucky Star so much, I decided to check out some of the shows referenced in it, as well as anything similar I could find. This led me to 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi', 'To Heart', and 'Genshiken'. I've already posted my thoughts on them in the forums, so I just linked to the threads rather than repeat myself here. Short version: worth watching. Next priority along this vein is 'Kujibiki Unbalance', something of a spinoff from Genshiken, the anime all the club members watch during the course of the show. Seems to be about students at a school where everything is decided by drawing lots. An interesting premise, if nothing else. I remember seeing the first DVD at Best Buy, I need to remember to pick that up sometime.

Next up, we have 'Ah My Goddess!: Tatakau Tsubasa' (or Fighting Wings, if you prefer). I didn't know they made this, I just found it while browsing around. Pretty much more of the same as the TV series, this time animating the Angel Eater story. I thought it was really well done. I rather wonder if the rest of this arc is going to be animated. The won vs. the Angel Eater, but that's not where the manga story ends. I want to see Welsper introduced!

Moving on, let's go to 'My Otome', a spinoff/sequel of 'My HiME'. I really like My HiME when I saw it a while back, and rewatched again recently before Otome. I was hoping that the second series would be as good as the first, but unfortunately it wasn't. Not to say it was bad, far from it. Just a let-down after the first series. No complaints with the art or animation; those are all really good. The story is also good, although IMO not as good as the first. It's also quite interesting to see how the old characters react in a new environment. The battles are not nearly as interesting as the first show. Instead of giant summoned monsters, we get magical girls who double as maids, occasionally materializing weapons. Just lacks the excitement of the previous show. Probably my biggest problem with the new show is the new lead character Arika. She's so annoying, as soon as she starts talking, I just feel the urge to strangle. Probably the only character type I dislike more than the uselessly energetic type (Arika) is the girl with the brother complex (Shiho from HiME, for instance). Anyways, Otome is good, just not as good as I'd hoped.

Last show to talk about as Kanon. Not the 2006 version from those who did Air and Clannad, but the old 2002 version. Although I'm only about 1/2 way through it, I think I can pretty confidently say don't bother. Go for the later version, its much better. It (quite naturally) follows the same story, but is not as well fleshed out, being just 13 episodes, rather than the 24 episodes of the later version. Also, the visuals are not as detailed and pretty, which I suppose may be expected, being 4 years older. I think this would be well worth watching if the newer version wasn't available, but placed beside Kanon 2006, it doesn't stack up so well.

Topic #2: Manga

Reading manga is good. I seem to do it in cycles. I'll buy 15 or so volumes of various series and read them all over the next day or so. Then I'll be fine for a while, until I get the urge to buy some more. Repeat. I'd like to get into some different series, but I'm already trying to keep up with a couple too many. What I'm reading now hasn't changed much from a couple months ago, except for the addition of Rosario+Vampire, and the removal of My HiME, because it ended. I did pick up the first couple volumes of Immortal Rain and Rebirth. Although I like what I see thus far, I haven't yet gotten any further into them yet.

While I may have my complaints about the Bleach anime, I have none about the manga. It has stayed consistently good since it started, and it seems like it won't show any signs of suckage until it ends. I've fallen about 3 volumes behind in Enchanter, and probably Buso Renkin as well. I'd like to catch up on Enchanter quickly, but I'm not too concerned about Buso Renkin. While Kenshin was great, this newer effort from the same artist leaves something to be desired.

Topic #3: Games

In all actuality, I don't have much to say about gaming. I used to game all the time, but not much anymore. I still buy new games out of habit, but it takes forever until I play them most of the time.

Actually, there is one thing I have to talk about: Visual Novels. I wish they were officially translated and sold in the USA. I suppose that's just wishful thinking. I doubt there's really a market for them here, I'm actually surprised they sell well in Japan. But really, I like them. I played Kanon and Clannad, and those are great. While the anime versions have the definite advantage of being animated (nah, really? ;) ), the games allow you to play out the story the way you want. I especially like this, as I never really care much for the main heroine chosen for the anime. With the games, I can play Kanon and have Mai or Nayuki be the 'winner', or in Clannad choose from Tomoyo, Kotomi, or Kyou. I always liked that pairing, Tomoya and Tomoyo. It's Tomo-Tomo!

Topic #4: Music

I'm curious, how many of you listen to OSTs and/or JMusic? Myself, I listen to rather a lot of both.

I have an almost embarassingly large amount of music from video games, and a few TV shows. Most of it is from RPGs (of which most are, of course, from Square-Enix), but there's also technoey rock stuff from Megaman and Devil May Cry, lots of stuff from .Hack (games & TV), as well Bleach and RahXephon. Most of my favorite stuff comes from the video games, tho. It'd be hard to identify all my favorite composers, but off the top of my head, I like Sakimoto Hitoshi (Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile) for the large orchestral arrangements, Uematsu Nobuo (Final Fantasy) mostly for his piano pieces, Mitsuda Yasunori (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears), Kaijura Yuki (.Hack//SIGN, Xenosage 2 & 3), and Satou Tenpei (Nippon Ichi games). I'm thinking about looking for the soundtracks to Key's games as well.

My first exposure to Japanese popular music was, unsurprisingly, anime. This is also still my main way to discover new artists. Mostly I listen to pop and some rock music, because that's the easiest to find. I'd like to expand a bit beyond this, but that can wait until I check out all the pop and rock artists that I want. I listen to quite a number of artists, but currently my favorites would be: 1: Dir en grey, 2: Gackt, and 3: Jyukai. I also quite like Utada Hikaru, Yui, High and Mighty Color, and Kawada Mami. BoA as well, tho she's Korean. I'd really like to discover some more JRock artists, as that's my favorite style of music. Dir en grey's Marrow of a Bone is by far my favorite album ATM.

Ja ne

rdaniels

rdaniels : japan

Protoculture: Anime Adventures pt.2