Anime Odd Thoughts Lot (Week of Mar/25/07, )

Not a very present week for us... feel a little better yesterday, thanks to the decent weather and a great futbol game (+anime). I'm glad that the lady knights got into the elite eight too.

REIDEEN 第04話「影との戦い」 REIDEEN 04 [The battle with shadow]

I really enjoy this new series. In this episode, we finally got to see some reminiscent super-mecha action that fits a remake of a 70's mecha anime (to me, that's not much diffience between a breast-o fire attack and a shot from the mega bazooka launcher). The mecha choreography might be weak compare to the newer anime, but it's obvious that the show's focus was not on the mecha (see the OP). I was a bit surprised that the show wasn't well received by the viewers, at least on some forums....

This series remind me the new wave of comedy shows without the audience reaction track (for example, "The Office" and "My name is Earl" which weren't recorded in front of live audience like most "traditional" american comedy shows). Why? Humors in a show don't need to be point out by a "laugh track". As for the anime show, you don't need to see chibi-lize characters with the comedic deliverance. I love how they use Sakita... I meant Maedasaki Tarou(前田崎 太郎) as a relieve character in the show.

月面兎兵器ミーナ 第11話 「最終アナウンス」 Getsumen Toheiki mi-na 11 [The final announce(ment)]

Don't you think the ending is a bit rushed?? It could certainly use a couple more episode to introduce to us the rest of the mi-nas, don't you think? (葉月ミーナ(haduki? mi-na)と白鳥ミーナ(shirodori? mi-na)from らぶ天(rabuten)... please?)

Shiwasu mi-na(師走ミーナ) must be the weakest mi-na in the universe... unless her (fleet of) battle ship is her weapon... still Ootsuki and Tsukishiro took care of it with ease.

We finally get to see Ootsuki's juujitsu sequence!!! too bad there was no narration for it... either way I think you'll appreciate it, right?

I almost forgot to mention Sasakura Ryuu (and CV: Mizushima Takahiro) actually made a cameo in the last episode (why not this one too?), I wonder if anyone caught that...

コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ 第22話 「血染めのユフィ」Code Geass 22 (bloodstained Yufi)

The title of the episode said it all... I never saw this coming tho, I was expecting something else.

ロケットガール第05話「イグニッション -ignition-」 Rocket Girls 05 (ignition)

Heading to space already! They must have some superior diapers at SSA to go with the skin-tight spacesuit. It would be nice for them to develop a bra for Yukari to make her feel more comfortable under that spacesuit...

Anime Odd Thoughts Lot (Week of Mar/11/07, bring on spring break!)

There are quite a few series that has made their debut in February and March. Let's look at some of them in this week's OTL: (Warning: The following OTL contains lame content and engrish intended for mature audiences. Viewers discretion is advised.)

獣装機攻ダンクーガ ノヴァ Dancouga Nova (premiered Feb/15) and

REIDEEN(premiered Mar/3)

I put these two together for obvious reason. They are both remake of popular^{(citation needed)} mecha anime from decades ago. You know exactly what to expect from these type of shows: (spoiler warning!)
protagonist(s) meet robot(s), big bad monstor threatens humanity, robot saves the world...

If I recall correctly, REIDEEN is one of those macho good-vs-evil, monstor-of-the-week type of mecha anime from the good old 70's. The new show bear the same name, but I consider it more of a franchise reboot than a remake. Everything has changed in both new series. The characters, plot(Dancouga might be a sequel tho), characters and mecha designs are all new. In fact, the new REIDEEN share a little if at all design clues of the oh-so-colorful singing REIDEEN in that 70's show(no pun intended).

Now Dancouga Nova is a bit of a disapointment for me. I didn't hold high hope for it anyway. The original Dancouga is one of my favorite mecha anime along with the Gundam trilogy, Godmars and Macross in the 80's. I would consider the original to be in the "more realistic" type anime which has spawned after the success of Gundam and Macross. While the robot-action was the focus of the show, that's great character development as the young protagonists get involved in a militant organization. The new show somehow lost the realistic touch and I would consider it as random fan-service madness as seen in the likes of Gravion (you should be glad if you have no idea what Gravion is)

MOONLIGHT MILE ムーンライトマイル 1stシーズン -Lift off- (premiered Mar/3)

This is one ambitious project for Studio HIBARI (スタジオ雲雀). They must have some deep pocket sponsors backing them up for this series. This must have been the first time I see producers put the "1st season"(1stシーズン) moniker within the title before the series even begin. I'm a big sci-fi anime fan, therefore despite some downfall in the very first episode, I'll stick with it as I have read a couple chapters of the manga and find this series intriguing (plot-wise).

The first episode started very slow, and there are sexually explicit scenes that are totally unnecessary. It wouldn't make any impact if they cut those out in my opinion. Also I would like to see changes in the anime adaptation for the major mistakes/misconception of physics in space(gravity in orbits... etc) seen in the manga.

ロケットガール Rocket Girls (premiered Feb/21)

My favorite of all the new 2007 anime so far. The right balance of storytelling, humor, fan-service and visuals. The voice actors did a superb job too (but I wouldn't be a good critic on that, since I could actually tolerate cartoon-network-grade dubs). I would probably put up the opening song "Rise" one of these days. Some fansubbers should pick this one up soon, at least I hope.

This is running long already, I'll talk about new OVA like Genshiken 2, Ichigo Mashimaro 1 and Mai-Zhime Zwei 2 some other time then... Oh, I wish I could do the OTL on Code Geass and Getsumen Toheiki too...

Anime Odd Thoughts Lot (week of Mar/04/07, new banner, same lame content)

This is a bit late because I spend the time making the new banner on YGTB2 Sunday... the reference?
obvious: House (american TV drama) - cane twirling dude
not-so-obvious: Yakitate-Japan (anime/manga) - Brad Kidd(?)'s thumb up
no one on this planet would get: Black Jack (anime/manga) - The name kuroo and Brad's costume

too lazy to type this week, so I'll give you this week's list and rank them by personal preference:

#1: コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ 第19話 「神の島」 Code Geass 19

I'm not a big fan of Gundam Seed, but I do remember the island episode. GS fans will definitely send out more hate mail to Sunrise after seeing this one, lol. What a fan-service-filled episode!

May be Oranji-kun has become an alter user? Shell buuuuuulleeeettt-o!!!!!


#2: 月面兎兵器ミーナ 第08話「不機嫌なナコル」 Getsumen Tohenki Mi-na 8

My "guilty pleasure", an action/fan-service comedy. This episode pretty much disproof my Kanchi-theory completely... but then there's no logic in comedy/parody series like this?!

#3: がくえんゆーとぴあまなびストレート！ 第08話 「たたかえ聖桜生徒会！」 Manabi Straight-o 8

I think this series deserves it own post (I've been working on one). It's not a "must see" series but certainly refreshing for a school life series that take place in the near future.

#4: のだめカンタービレ 第08話 「Lesson 8」 Nodame Cantabile 8

You just can't get rid of franz...lol

#5: 武装錬金 第22話 「決断を要す」 Busourenkin 22

This episode is more story telling than action, at least "Buster Baron" make an appearance.

The rest of the...
Saint October セイントオクトーバー 第09話 「ロリ潜入！その時、TVに映った超大物が！」
Just tune in to see how this show is going. Now I know why it got quite some negative reviews from bloggers everywhere.

NARUTO -ナルト- 疾風伝 第4話（224）「砂の人柱力」

I'm officially dropping this series, now that the Kakashi fight has ended. I have already dug into my friend's manga up to volume 33.

幕末機関説 いろはにほへと 第21話「海峡渡る」
<forgot to take screencap>
Yawn... no picture for a good reason... look on the bright side... only a couple more episodes to go