New pick-ups

Since I don’t have that much time to watch that many anime at once, new anime to be added to my potential list wouldn’t be that long at all. However, after reading a couple of notable blogs summing up the summer season there are a few series that I found interesting and plan to pick up once I find the time to.

Doujin Work sounds interesting definitely. The idea of watching an anime about the “path to becoming a famous doujinshi artist” is highly appealing, when doujin work is closely related to the anime/manga field.

Moetan looks cute and the idea of an anime about teaching English to otaku’s sound vaguely funny.

Lovely Complex is a series recommended by a friend, and he seems to think its good. Our taste are generally similar, so I’ll have a go.

Lucky Star seems to be such a popular choice among Otaku’s, but I don’t seem to be very enthusiastic. Mainly put off by the character design I guess. It just looks a bit too silly for me. Though, the popularity of the show should be an indication that it’s a decent series? But an attractive point, again like Doujin Work, is that it’s about the life of an otaku!

But my current anime viewing still include FMP:2nd Raid, Bleach and Naruto Shippuden. I’ve yet to start Deathnote and Nana, but that’s mainly because I already know the story, so there are almost no surprises in the anime since I read the manga. Another series I began watching is Strawberry Panic, and I don’t think I’m much of a yuri fan, and haven’t decided whether to continue with it or drop it. Suggestions?

So I wouldn’t call this a summer ‘07 review, as so many people seem to be doing recently, since I’m not much a of season by season anime watcher. I tend to old back season stuff, mainly cause of the lack of time to keep up. Never the less these are the new anime’s that I’ve become interested in recently. And they’re definitely on the lighter side of life Maybe cause I’m sick of watching anything mind blowing and serious after watching a couple of intense movies recently.

New Phone

My new Nokia 6300 has been keeping me busy recently, along with catching up with high school as well as Uni buddies. So I haven’t had much time at home to watch anime or read manga. However, I did make a manga related acquisition today at Dymocks bookstore. I ended up buying the Complete book to drawing manga with the birthday gift card I got last year. Was wondering whether I should pick up a copy of Vol. 1 of Negima but wasn’t sure if the series was any good.

But, after coming home from shopping today, I did manage to squeeze in last week’s episode of Bleach 130. And why are Bleach fillers currently airing? Did I completely miss that arc in the manga or what? Man, No wonder people say Bleach anime’s sucky. This filler arch about the Arrancar being able to hide themselves by taking the form of the human spirit they devoured is pretty lame to say the least. And crappy battle scenes.

Well at least Naruto manga and anime is whooping ass

Code Geass epi 23

I’ve been meaning to blog about the final few episodes of Code Geass before the 90min special finale Episode 24-25 appears in a few months time. The last 2 or so episodes were definitely intense. I think perhaps that’s why I end up liking many mecha series, cause usually they involve wars, which means it’s going to be complicated in terms of story. they’ll be friendships broken, betrayals, sacrifices death. It all adds to the impact of the story and the overriding message of the show. Spoilers under the cut, time for me to dish out some thoughts on the show

Deathnote Vol. 1-12

I’ve been burning off some manga from my HD since I’m seriously running out of space, I decided to have a little rant/review of Deathnote manga. I finished reading 12 volumes of Deathnote manga sometime last year. It’s certain one of those memorable mangas, the story was deeper than most I’ve seen and actually requires thinking. It took longer than usual to read cause there were so much texts compared to other manga’s, as L and Raito would both be explaining their plans/stategies to counter each other etc. What hooked me in was how intelligent the ideas were. I really must give credit to the story writer.

Hana yori Dango 2

This second season of Hana Yori Dango picks up right after Domyouji leaves for New York. After confessing to Domyouji, Makino has not spoken to him for a year. Rui and the other members of F4 try and help Makino meet Domyouji again by going to New York for the christmas holidays. Though F4 and Makino meet Domyouji again, he has become a completely different person, and so they leave for Japan.

Densha Otoko

 

A true love story turned to bestselling novel, created from the Internet BBS, 2channel to blockbuster hit movie. Itoh Misaki plays Aoyama Saori, working as an office lady at a MNC, gets into trouble with a drunkard on a train. She’s saved by Yamada Tsuyoshi, played by Itoh Atsushi. As a form of appreciation, she sends him Hermes teacups. Having no experience with the opposite sex, Tsuyoshi decides to ask for help on the Aladdin Channel BBS on how to interact with Saori. From D-Addicts wiki

Ouran Highschool Host Club 1-15

Ouran Highschool Host Club have to far been very entertaining to watch, and it’s starting to become one of my all time favourites (if it keeps up its charm and has a good ending). Like many other animes, Ouran has a pretty wacky storyline and almost random plots. Each episode can sort of be seen individually and have it’s own crazy/funny story, however, I still find each episode contributes to the overall plot and character development, so it’s not as random as it seems. I’m only up to 15 and there’s a total of 26 episodes, so it’s still ongoing and I’ll be looking forward to it.

Ichigo 100%

Ichigo 100% by Mizuki Kawashita was first introducted to me by Qu when she chucked me a couple of random series to watch at the end of TEE last year. I think I’ve pretty much read/watched all the Ichigo 100% related manga/anime. To date, there has been 13 episodes of anime, 2 specials and 4 OVAs. While Manga wise, it has ended with 19 volumes.

When I first watched it, the good characters, character design and animation quality was what held my attention. While the story itself is a romantic comedy, centering around the main male lead Manaka Junpei and several other female co-leads. Essentially, it’s about this average guy, Junpei, trying to decide of the 3 potential girl friends, which is the one he truely likes. And this occurs through very hilarious circumstances, where he is constantly misunderstood. The voice casting and music is also fairly decent. However, much to my dissapointment, the series only ran for 13 episodes when it could very well have survived by animating the whole Manga series.

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I was half expecting this to be as good as people say, while half expecting to be dissapointed. That’s because everytime I get hyped up about a series, eventually watching it becomes anticlimatic cause I had high expectations of it. However, I’m pleased to say that Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is as good as fans make it out to be. While I personally have yet to read the manga, bar chapter 1, The story was pretty much fresh and new to me. As far as I knew Haruhi was a girl who hated ordinary things and only wished to be surrounded by aliens, time travellers and espers. While I thought the storyline was a bit wacky, it turned out to be actually quite interesting.

Azumanga Daioh

I finally got around to watching one of anime’s all time comedies. A bit of history, I first came across Azumanga at an anime night back in high school around year 8. I, along with many others, laughed our heads off at the show. Ever since I’ve always wanted to actually finish the series, which I finally got the chance to after getting it off a uni friened this year.