Neko-tan dropped me a note last week recommending Shigofumi out of the last batch of anime shows, of which I replied back in email with some thoughts of my own on some of the ones I recently finished. I didn't go into too much detail in the reply, but since I already took the time to start it, I thought I'd follow-up with a proper(ly summarized) post on the topic.
もやしもん (Moyashimon)
This one is quite interesting in terms of concept. Having the ability to see and interact with microbes in such a unique way is an attractive idea for me. There's lots of germs involved, but they're packaged so cutely that you just can't resist the lopsided grin when you see them floating around and hear them speak. The cast is on the heavy side considering the nature and the length of the series, and the omake microbe theatre at the end of every episode is pretty informative. I also have an affinity to agricultural universities due to my childhood dream of becoming a vet, and such setting is rather fresh for an anime. The bit about Kei dressing as a girl was weird, though.
Moyashimon didn't inspire me to actively learn more about microbes, but it's entertaining and fun to watch. BTW, I failed microbiology, one of the required courses for pre-vet, in university before switching to earth science. I don't dislike it, though. Just didn't study enough and joined the failing 50% of the class population.
Recommended unless you must have your fix of fighting and abnormal cast. XD
破天荒遊戯 (Hatenkou Yugi)
This is a very typical girl-goes-on-journey-with-friends-she-meets-on-the-road story. The only highlight for me is the male cast, as I'm not familiar with the seiyuu for the lead female. I don't really have much to say about this show since it didn't leave much of an impression on me. It may be just me, but I feel Kino no Tabi is a better 'travel adventure' show, even if the overall mood is more melancholy.
Not recommended unless you dig Sakurai Takahiro or Miki Shinichiro.
魔人探偵脳噛ネウロ (Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro)
OK, I admit that the seiyuu cast was what convinced me at first, but the interaction between strongly portrayed characters helped keep me to the end. The 'regular' cases are typical enough and even fun sometime for a show in the suspense genre, but the 'X' cases can get pretty graphic and bloody. More so than a lot of the other war and fighting themed shows I've seen, actually. My brother got a glimpse of the second last episode (the nastiest episode in the series) and saw the screen filled with broken bodies scattered about in blood in a dark and ominous place, and he immediately cried murder and questioned my taste...
Recommended if you're into this sort of thing. You have been warned.
Rental Magica
This I really watched purely for the seiyuu cast. I'm fine with magic and supernatural power, but focusing mainly on said power is not. I was never into this kind of stuff to begin with... Without the cast that it has, I wouldn't had touched it. The OP song isn't bad, and the slow version is even better.
Not recommended unless you're into seiyuu like me.
狼と香辛料 (Wolf and Spice)
I know this is not Code Geass, but having Fukuyama Jun and Koshimizu Ami as the protagonists feeds to my delusion of Lelouch x Kallen... Ahem. This is an interesting show in that merchant business, something I usually stay away from, plays a big role. Frankly, I get lost easily whenever someone gets into some theory about the way of business (which is the majority of the series), but it's fun pretending to know what they're talking about.
Anyway, I was intrigued at first because of the 'wolf' in the name (wolf is my favourite animal) but I was left a bit disappointed in the lack of decent wolf design. On a side note, the first thing that caught my eye right after I rolled the video, was a shot of Holo slowly uncurling herself in the beginning of the OP sequence. That looks just like a flipped image of the Firefox logo (minus the globe... but she's embracing the field)! XD
It's hard for me to do the recommendation line for this one since I don't really have any feelings for it, but the original light novel seems well received... Recommended only if you like the main seiyuu or the original work?
NOIR
When I saw the 1st episode many years ago, I was completely blown away by the unique style of the OP sequence, the beautiful choreography (Kirika's awesome whenever she moves in for the kill!), the amazing and realistic scenery, and mood swaying music (this is where I first heard of Kajiura Yuki). Of course, having my favourite seiyuu as one of the leads helped as well, although she never get to speak much. Neko-tan warned me of the distorted character art in later episodes and the weak ending, but I was so impressed by the 1st episode that I decided to give it a try. And after all those years, I finally managed to finish the series.
Neko-tan's warnings were fair and well deserved, as there were more than a handful of episodes with very notable character art distortion, and the ending was indeed on the weak side. I've seen worse, however, so it was bearable. The plot is really the biggest flaw, which is fatal for any series. For this reason, I've come to view NOIR as an artistic piece composed of art, style, and music, with some kind of story in the background. Yeah.
Recommended unless you're the type of person who can't stand going to art museums or similar musical venues and must have a strong story. In which case, do at least watch the first episode.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
I'm not a musically talented person, but I usually like to have something playing in the background when I'm on the computer. My kind of music, of course. And I wear earphones at work so I don't disturb other people.
At home, I have my 'Jukebox' located conveniently in Stargazer (the 2nd HDD) so there's no problem. But I can't possibly load all my music unto the work laptop which I leave at the office, and 8hr/day & 5 days/week is a pretty long time to fill. So what's one to do to rid of the silent boredom and avoid playing the same tracks over and over?
Well, first of all, there's web radio. There's a couple web radio sites with seiyuu as personalities that I listen to, but my Japanese level isn't good enough to be able to write (in English) and listen (in Japanese) at the same time. Besides, seiyuu may speak perfectly clear Japanese when voicing over characters, they can speak really fast and mumble quite a bit outside recording sessions. As a result, I can only listen to web radio when I'm doing more routine work or data punching. And the radio programs that I listen to only get updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Next there's Songza. As mentioned before in a previous post, Songza is pretty neat and friendly. The only things is, it usually grabs the source files from YouTube, so you sort of have to know what to search for. It's a great resource to hear some only-on-DVD live performances, though. My current Songza playlist includes a couple Mizuki Nana's songs from the 2006 and 2007 Animelo, a few tracks from the Sound Horizon Triumph live (especially love that duet by Yuuki & Revo), a few Vocaloid2 songs (more on those in another post), and a few Kageyama Hironobu live songs (e.g. Pegasus Fantasy in Portuguese), Kamen Rider Kabuto's OP, and three versions (piano, original Russian, and English by Ed's VA) of Brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist.
Today I found a new way of listening to music at work. From an unlikely source, too. Nico Nico Douga XD I'm very new to this and right now only listen to the Vocaloid songs, but the site is full of treasures. For example, I'd search for 'KAITO' and play the results one by one as BGM. I'm not sure what I did this afternoon, but it just automatically started jumping to a different Miku's video after finishing the current one. I believed I started with a Kaito + Miku one, and it just sort of went out of control afterwards. I'll have to find out how to do that. :D
I used to do last.fm while going online on foreign (i.e., not my Coordinator) computers and play 'my radio station.' However, I soon found out that my music taste was a bit too skewed and it quickly returned with a no more new track available message after a short while. I think the site's got a whole lot of music recently so I should have a better chance now, but I think it'll only play each track at most 3 times? Not gonna work for me if I just want to listen to music when not on my computer. Besides, I still doubt it'll have much selection for my taste...
Before this all, I used to do shoutcast and listen to the anime stations. The selection is usually pretty varied, but that represents another problem for me. I don't just listen to any anime song, so while I get to hear some nice tracks that I don't have, it's relatively easy to encounter music styles and artists not quite my taste. And it can get annoying when people request a whole line up of songs like this. Lastly, the connection can be scratchy from time to time, and the sound quality may fluctuate sometime.
So at home, I have my ever expanding 'Jukebox' to rely on. At work, I alternate between the music I loaded, the web radio, and Songza, depending on what I'm doing and my mood. I'll be adding Nico Nico to the mix from now on. Should be fun. XD
At home, I have my 'Jukebox' located conveniently in Stargazer (the 2nd HDD) so there's no problem. But I can't possibly load all my music unto the work laptop which I leave at the office, and 8hr/day & 5 days/week is a pretty long time to fill. So what's one to do to rid of the silent boredom and avoid playing the same tracks over and over?
Well, first of all, there's web radio. There's a couple web radio sites with seiyuu as personalities that I listen to, but my Japanese level isn't good enough to be able to write (in English) and listen (in Japanese) at the same time. Besides, seiyuu may speak perfectly clear Japanese when voicing over characters, they can speak really fast and mumble quite a bit outside recording sessions. As a result, I can only listen to web radio when I'm doing more routine work or data punching. And the radio programs that I listen to only get updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Next there's Songza. As mentioned before in a previous post, Songza is pretty neat and friendly. The only things is, it usually grabs the source files from YouTube, so you sort of have to know what to search for. It's a great resource to hear some only-on-DVD live performances, though. My current Songza playlist includes a couple Mizuki Nana's songs from the 2006 and 2007 Animelo, a few tracks from the Sound Horizon Triumph live (especially love that duet by Yuuki & Revo), a few Vocaloid2 songs (more on those in another post), and a few Kageyama Hironobu live songs (e.g. Pegasus Fantasy in Portuguese), Kamen Rider Kabuto's OP, and three versions (piano, original Russian, and English by Ed's VA) of Brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist.
Today I found a new way of listening to music at work. From an unlikely source, too. Nico Nico Douga XD I'm very new to this and right now only listen to the Vocaloid songs, but the site is full of treasures. For example, I'd search for 'KAITO' and play the results one by one as BGM. I'm not sure what I did this afternoon, but it just automatically started jumping to a different Miku's video after finishing the current one. I believed I started with a Kaito + Miku one, and it just sort of went out of control afterwards. I'll have to find out how to do that. :D
I used to do last.fm while going online on foreign (i.e., not my Coordinator) computers and play 'my radio station.' However, I soon found out that my music taste was a bit too skewed and it quickly returned with a no more new track available message after a short while. I think the site's got a whole lot of music recently so I should have a better chance now, but I think it'll only play each track at most 3 times? Not gonna work for me if I just want to listen to music when not on my computer. Besides, I still doubt it'll have much selection for my taste...
Before this all, I used to do shoutcast and listen to the anime stations. The selection is usually pretty varied, but that represents another problem for me. I don't just listen to any anime song, so while I get to hear some nice tracks that I don't have, it's relatively easy to encounter music styles and artists not quite my taste. And it can get annoying when people request a whole line up of songs like this. Lastly, the connection can be scratchy from time to time, and the sound quality may fluctuate sometime.
So at home, I have my ever expanding 'Jukebox' to rely on. At work, I alternate between the music I loaded, the web radio, and Songza, depending on what I'm doing and my mood. I'll be adding Nico Nico to the mix from now on. Should be fun. XD
Monday, April 21, 2008
ハチミツとクローバー (Honey & Clover) Japanese drama version
I've been somewhat skeptical since episode 1, and here's my verdict after watching the series.
It's a nice adaptation of the original manga, however, the project is an ambitious one and isn't really suited for a 11-episode drama series. Because of the scope of the original story and all the interweaving of the character background and relationships, it'd be much better to break it into two seasons like the anime version. As such, the coverage is relatively shallow and, while most of the issues introduced in the drama are resolved at the end, leaves something to be desired.
Of course, I said the above because I've already read the manga and watched the 1st season of the anime. For someone who has never come in contact with H&C, the drama would be a good watch with themes of friendship, love, and even goals in life. The slightly altered setting doesn't impress like the original, but the story still retains a pretty reasonable mix of ideal and reality. Great for young adults or anyone who has some level of experience.
I ended up liking Hagu the best out of all the cast, followed by Nomiya. Hagu is gentle yet strong like the original, and Nomiya is the mature voice like the original. Miyako is pretty otaku, and Mayama isn't half the pervert of the original. The others are fine, but no one really stands out except for Yamada, in a not-so-good way. She's the only one I can't get used to. It's simply too hard to compete against the extremely beautiful art of the anime. Morita? He's changed too much for the drama so he doesn't count anymore... The same goes for Romaiya-senpai. orz
I gave the drama version a B. If I've never seen H&C before, I probably would have given it a B~B+ or a B+. Recommended either way. First impression can be difficult to beat... Maybe I'll do a quick comparison for the mixed media series I've seen when I have time.
PS. I was browsing the ja.wikipedia page for the drama version just now and guess what I saw? There's going to be a Taiwanese drama based on H&C coming out in May! Yeah, I'll be checking it out for sure. This will be my 1st Taiwanese drama. XD
I've been somewhat skeptical since episode 1, and here's my verdict after watching the series.
It's a nice adaptation of the original manga, however, the project is an ambitious one and isn't really suited for a 11-episode drama series. Because of the scope of the original story and all the interweaving of the character background and relationships, it'd be much better to break it into two seasons like the anime version. As such, the coverage is relatively shallow and, while most of the issues introduced in the drama are resolved at the end, leaves something to be desired.
Of course, I said the above because I've already read the manga and watched the 1st season of the anime. For someone who has never come in contact with H&C, the drama would be a good watch with themes of friendship, love, and even goals in life. The slightly altered setting doesn't impress like the original, but the story still retains a pretty reasonable mix of ideal and reality. Great for young adults or anyone who has some level of experience.
I ended up liking Hagu the best out of all the cast, followed by Nomiya. Hagu is gentle yet strong like the original, and Nomiya is the mature voice like the original. Miyako is pretty otaku, and Mayama isn't half the pervert of the original. The others are fine, but no one really stands out except for Yamada, in a not-so-good way. She's the only one I can't get used to. It's simply too hard to compete against the extremely beautiful art of the anime. Morita? He's changed too much for the drama so he doesn't count anymore... The same goes for Romaiya-senpai. orz
I gave the drama version a B. If I've never seen H&C before, I probably would have given it a B~B+ or a B+. Recommended either way. First impression can be difficult to beat... Maybe I'll do a quick comparison for the mixed media series I've seen when I have time.
PS. I was browsing the ja.wikipedia page for the drama version just now and guess what I saw? There's going to be a Taiwanese drama based on H&C coming out in May! Yeah, I'll be checking it out for sure. This will be my 1st Taiwanese drama. XD
Saturday, April 19, 2008
If you had ever stumbled into this absurd corner hidden deep in the web maze before, be it by design or accident, you'll notice something different.
Yes, I abandoned the Asuran Theme and its variant which I had been using since 2003.
Yes, I upgraded the classic template and had to pick one temporarily. Didn't like any of the templates but didn't really have time to make one myself, especially considering all the reading I'd have to do.
Yes, I finally found a template which layout is simple enough for me to modify without going through too much hassle.
Yes, this is the theme I'll be using from now on till I get bored and have a lot of time on my hand. Thus I present you Paw Wow v.3!
No, I don't have a name for the theme this time. I didn't have anything particular in mind when I picked the colours out of whim.
Yes, I will be using this as a basis for the writing/translation blog that's been waiting for its debut for years. Only God knows (literally) when that will be...
Yes, I abandoned the Asuran Theme and its variant which I had been using since 2003.
Yes, I upgraded the classic template and had to pick one temporarily. Didn't like any of the templates but didn't really have time to make one myself, especially considering all the reading I'd have to do.
Yes, I finally found a template which layout is simple enough for me to modify without going through too much hassle.
Yes, this is the theme I'll be using from now on till I get bored and have a lot of time on my hand. Thus I present you Paw Wow v.3!
No, I don't have a name for the theme this time. I didn't have anything particular in mind when I picked the colours out of whim.
Yes, I will be using this as a basis for the writing/translation blog that's been waiting for its debut for years. Only God knows (literally) when that will be...
Thursday, April 17, 2008
April. It's that time of the year again, when a slew of new anime shows start. I haven't time to get through even just a handful of them (heck, I only just finished NOIR less than 2 weeks ago, and I had it since it came out in 2001!), but I'll post my thoughts on what I've seen so far and follow up with more posts later.
First off, the ones I'm looking forward to the most are Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier. Those are sure bets so I'll just grab them and wait till I have time to watch them, which, judging from past history, will be a good couple months away, if not longer...
The other ones that I'm not familiar with but will probably receive the same treatment are Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争) and Soul Eater. The former seems very interesting and I like the clean feel of the artwork. The latter is based on a manga which I've seen but never read. I'm guessing it might be similar to Shaman King or Bleach in terms of background setting. Should be fun.
Now let's start on what I have seen so far for the new shows.
紅 (Kurenai) Ep.1-2
The OP is pretty hip and cute, and it's of a completely different tone than the anime itself. The pace is okay and the overall mood feels a little dispirited, mainly due to the relatively depressing protagonist. He's not like Shinji type of depress, though, just a bit too accepting. I rather enjoy the interaction between him and Murasaki. This is when he acts like a responsible big brother. There's still too much enigma about the whole setting and character background. I haven't decided what to think about the anime yet, but I'll continue to watch it. We'll see how it turns out.
イタズラなKiss (Itazura no Kiss) Ep.1
I watched the 1st episode purely because of Mizuki Nana, and she was indeed the only highlight for the show and not enough to save it for me. Well, Park Romi also plays the little brother, but she simply doesn't get enough screen time at all to be a factor! The art is outdated and the plot and the characters feel flat. I tried reading the original manga a long time ago and forced myself through two volumes before deciding not to torture myself anymore. My brother got hooked by the Taiwanese drama based on it and even bought the DVD box set and the soundtrack CD. I sampled bits and pieces walking by the living room while he was watching it. The Taiwanese drama version is altered enough to actually be watch-worthy, but I can't stand the way the heroine is acted out. If it's Mizuki Nana's Makoto in the drama, I'd probably watch it. But for the manga and the anime version, I don't really see any way to save them. A drama CD with a different cast (but leave Nana and Romi-nee in there!) might interest me, but I'm dropping this anime.
隠の王 (Nabari no Ou) Ep.1
I read the manga quite some time ago and found it fine. Okay, I can't remember a thing from the manga except that the different ninja tribes are trying to get the thing (whatever it's called) from Miharu and fighting his little group of comrades. Watching the 1st episode refreshed my memory and at the same time brought a fresh look for this series. The art is good, and the fighting sequences are awesome and way beyond Naruto's level. I was unsure about having Kugimiya Rie as the protagonist, but she pulled it off very nicely, not to mention when Miharu went into intentional teretere mode. Interesting story, good characters and cast, great fighting scenes. You can bet I'll be keeping this one.
BLASSREITER Ep.1
This one feels like Devil May Cry to me, only that now there's an official group fighting the demonica(?) beside those with special powers. The 2D art is good, but I have trouble swallowing all the 3D ones. The cast is pretty good, and having Itou Shizuka and Miyake Kenta in the same team reminds me of Pumpkin Scissors (which I'd really like to see a sequel of for the anime version). It's intriguing that the main guy hasn't really entered the scene and keeps watching from a distance. I'm guessing Matsukaze Masaya's voicing him 'cause I heard him in the episode preview at the end. A truly exceptional thing about this series is that it's actually available on YouTube, with pretty decent English subtitle. I have to hand it to GONZO for this bold and brilliant move. This is most encouraging and hopefully it will open the door for many other studio to promote their works this way. Like I said before, with the ridiculous price per anime DVD disc here, there's no way I'm buying anything unless I've watched it and liked it. And I know a great percentage of the anime watching population in NA feels the same way. Again, props for GONZO!
Monochrome Factor Ep.1
I can't believe I watched this. Is this suppose to be BL? The title rings a bell so I think I might had read a chapter or two of the manga before, and I don't do BL... It's got a pretty good cast, which is the only thing keeping me at the moment. The art is okay, but Shirogane's character and the infamous kiss scene are really pushing it for me. I actually looked around online to check if this is BL. It's not, thankfully. So I guess I'll stick around for a few more episodes.
I think this is long enough for a single post. More to come later.
First off, the ones I'm looking forward to the most are Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier. Those are sure bets so I'll just grab them and wait till I have time to watch them, which, judging from past history, will be a good couple months away, if not longer...
The other ones that I'm not familiar with but will probably receive the same treatment are Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争) and Soul Eater. The former seems very interesting and I like the clean feel of the artwork. The latter is based on a manga which I've seen but never read. I'm guessing it might be similar to Shaman King or Bleach in terms of background setting. Should be fun.
Now let's start on what I have seen so far for the new shows.
紅 (Kurenai) Ep.1-2
The OP is pretty hip and cute, and it's of a completely different tone than the anime itself. The pace is okay and the overall mood feels a little dispirited, mainly due to the relatively depressing protagonist. He's not like Shinji type of depress, though, just a bit too accepting. I rather enjoy the interaction between him and Murasaki. This is when he acts like a responsible big brother. There's still too much enigma about the whole setting and character background. I haven't decided what to think about the anime yet, but I'll continue to watch it. We'll see how it turns out.
イタズラなKiss (Itazura no Kiss) Ep.1
I watched the 1st episode purely because of Mizuki Nana, and she was indeed the only highlight for the show and not enough to save it for me. Well, Park Romi also plays the little brother, but she simply doesn't get enough screen time at all to be a factor! The art is outdated and the plot and the characters feel flat. I tried reading the original manga a long time ago and forced myself through two volumes before deciding not to torture myself anymore. My brother got hooked by the Taiwanese drama based on it and even bought the DVD box set and the soundtrack CD. I sampled bits and pieces walking by the living room while he was watching it. The Taiwanese drama version is altered enough to actually be watch-worthy, but I can't stand the way the heroine is acted out. If it's Mizuki Nana's Makoto in the drama, I'd probably watch it. But for the manga and the anime version, I don't really see any way to save them. A drama CD with a different cast (but leave Nana and Romi-nee in there!) might interest me, but I'm dropping this anime.
隠の王 (Nabari no Ou) Ep.1
I read the manga quite some time ago and found it fine. Okay, I can't remember a thing from the manga except that the different ninja tribes are trying to get the thing (whatever it's called) from Miharu and fighting his little group of comrades. Watching the 1st episode refreshed my memory and at the same time brought a fresh look for this series. The art is good, and the fighting sequences are awesome and way beyond Naruto's level. I was unsure about having Kugimiya Rie as the protagonist, but she pulled it off very nicely, not to mention when Miharu went into intentional teretere mode. Interesting story, good characters and cast, great fighting scenes. You can bet I'll be keeping this one.
BLASSREITER Ep.1
This one feels like Devil May Cry to me, only that now there's an official group fighting the demonica(?) beside those with special powers. The 2D art is good, but I have trouble swallowing all the 3D ones. The cast is pretty good, and having Itou Shizuka and Miyake Kenta in the same team reminds me of Pumpkin Scissors (which I'd really like to see a sequel of for the anime version). It's intriguing that the main guy hasn't really entered the scene and keeps watching from a distance. I'm guessing Matsukaze Masaya's voicing him 'cause I heard him in the episode preview at the end. A truly exceptional thing about this series is that it's actually available on YouTube, with pretty decent English subtitle. I have to hand it to GONZO for this bold and brilliant move. This is most encouraging and hopefully it will open the door for many other studio to promote their works this way. Like I said before, with the ridiculous price per anime DVD disc here, there's no way I'm buying anything unless I've watched it and liked it. And I know a great percentage of the anime watching population in NA feels the same way. Again, props for GONZO!
Monochrome Factor Ep.1
I can't believe I watched this. Is this suppose to be BL? The title rings a bell so I think I might had read a chapter or two of the manga before, and I don't do BL... It's got a pretty good cast, which is the only thing keeping me at the moment. The art is okay, but Shirogane's character and the infamous kiss scene are really pushing it for me. I actually looked around online to check if this is BL. It's not, thankfully. So I guess I'll stick around for a few more episodes.
I think this is long enough for a single post. More to come later.
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