Concordia's screening - new shows
mood: 
content
contentmusic: Hoshi wo Mezashite, by NewS
Well, went to the local Concordia Otaku anime club's screening today. They just started their screenings again, so this was the first of this semester. Their schedule was like this:
1:00 PM Kekkaishi eps. 1-2 *NEW*
1:50 PM History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi eps. 1-2 *NEW*
2:40 PM Romeo x Juliet eps. 1-2 *NEW*
3:30 PM Seto no Hanayome eps. 1-2 *NEW*
4:20 PM Yakitate Japan eps. 65-66
5:10 PM *~~ 35 min Break ~~*
5:45 PM Nodame Cantabile (Live Action) ep. 1
6:40 PM Busou Renkin eps. 13-14
7:30 PM Soukou no Strain eps. 1-2 *NEW*
8:20 PM Claymore eps. 1-2 *NEW*
9:10 PM D. Gray-man eps. 13-14
I wasn't sure whether I should skip the first show, from the summary I'd read of it, but I ended up going for the sake of checking it out. Turns out it was more interesting and less cheesy than I expected, so a pretty ok show. The second show was about what I expected: big-breasted ass-kicking girl and kinda stupid, weak and annoying boy. For a show with a female main character in it, this one was certainly a lot less stupid and annoying than most, and not bitchy despite being tough. So that was a pleasant surprise. The guy, though, has an annoying voice actor, I'm sorry to say. The third show, well, Romeo & Juliet with a twist, and the japanese version of the song "You Raise Me Up", which was the OP of this series, was much more interesting to me than the original song. Overall, this show and Kekkaishi are the ones with that show the most promise of all the early afternoon shows. After all I've heard about Seto no Hanayome, I have to say I find it extremely disappointing. There's too much comedy, and for the most part the comedy is more stupid than funny. The first episode was a bore, and I had a nice nap through the second one. I played a game on my cell phone throughout Yakitate Japan. Such a boring show, with such exaggerated comedy, a boring plot and boring characters, that I don't understand what anyone sees in it at all. I can only hope that they either decide to drop it soon, or it gets licensed so they'll be forced to drop it. Otherwise, this series seems to have an endless number of episodes, enough to make me suffer for years of having to find something to do while it's on.
Now for the second half of the afternoon. If you've ever seen Nodame Cantabile, then you know that it's a pretty ok show, focused on music. I never bothered to follow this show past the two episodes that the club showed sometime last semester. It was an ok show, but I wasn't interested enough to go and download episodes. Well, the Live Action movie is really pretty good, and it had me perhaps rethinking my stance on the anime. I might just put this on my list of anime to watch if I get a chance. It has the right mix of comedy, serious elements, interesting characters with depth, and good music. Apparently its spot is, as of this semester, the spot reserved for random new series that they'll be changing every week. Busou Renkin is fairly ordinary as shounen shows go, but it just started to get interesting at the end of episode 14. Well, more interesting than it's been so far. It's really an ok show that I watch cauz it's fairly enjoyable, but again, nothing I'd download. One thing though, and this is a spoiler, so I've made the text white so you need to select it to view it if you don't mind being spoiled: Kazuki's transformation at the end of episode 14, after his supposed "death" because he got a hole pierced through his chest and his kakugane knocked out of him in the process, was very 'Goku turns into a Super Saiyajin' to me. Only I guess Kazuki would be more like Vejita, since his opponent was already in that form before him. For Soukou no Strain, the main character annoyed me to no end with her ugly hairstyle, and also, regarding the end of episode 1, if you can't scream properly, just don't do it at all. God, that was awful. Not to mention pretty pointless, at that point. I only started to dislike her less in the next episode, because she became more competent, less whiny, and more mature. I guess this show has a bit of promise, but I'm certainly looking forward to more of the brother, because he kicks ass. Claymore, I never liked it from the moment I first saw it at the Otakuthon screening where it was shown. I had watched the first episode purely out of curiosity, but it was the generic 'main character slays monster to protect people' theme, plus the main character herself was half a monster, and well, if you know me, you know that I'm already predisposed to dislike most female main characters. This one barely has a personality, so boring. I just skipped watching the episodes entirely this time, but who knows, I might give it more of a chance next week now that we've moved past the introduction of the main character and the sort of 'sidekick' she acquired when she saved him. Now as for D.Gray-Man, as far as I'm concerned, the only thing that keeps it from being a really good show are the highly unnecessary fillers that make up most of this series and make it very boring. The manga is far ahead, that's why it's unnecessary. I've avoided the stupid fillers like the plague, only watching the next episode preview at the end of each to see if the next episode would also be filler. The episodes shown today, the second one was filler, so I left after the first. The first one was mainly the introduction of a new exorcist main character, Lavi, a pretty likeable and friendly guy, as well as Allen dealing with some personal issues. Overall a very good episode, though not as good as, say, the previous Miranda episodes, or the upcoming Crowley episodes. Unfortunately, the next two screenings will also have filler episodes, and with the Halloween special, we should only get back on track with manga material on November 10th.
So overall, the second half of the screening was quite a bit more interesting than the first half. This semester in general will have more interesting shows than the last, so that's something to be thankful for. I'm just hoping this Romeo & Juliet anime adaptation actually gets interesting and doesn't become too cheesy.
Cynthia
1:00 PM Kekkaishi eps. 1-2 *NEW*
1:50 PM History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi eps. 1-2 *NEW*
2:40 PM Romeo x Juliet eps. 1-2 *NEW*
3:30 PM Seto no Hanayome eps. 1-2 *NEW*
4:20 PM Yakitate Japan eps. 65-66
5:10 PM *~~ 35 min Break ~~*
5:45 PM Nodame Cantabile (Live Action) ep. 1
6:40 PM Busou Renkin eps. 13-14
7:30 PM Soukou no Strain eps. 1-2 *NEW*
8:20 PM Claymore eps. 1-2 *NEW*
9:10 PM D. Gray-man eps. 13-14
I wasn't sure whether I should skip the first show, from the summary I'd read of it, but I ended up going for the sake of checking it out. Turns out it was more interesting and less cheesy than I expected, so a pretty ok show. The second show was about what I expected: big-breasted ass-kicking girl and kinda stupid, weak and annoying boy. For a show with a female main character in it, this one was certainly a lot less stupid and annoying than most, and not bitchy despite being tough. So that was a pleasant surprise. The guy, though, has an annoying voice actor, I'm sorry to say. The third show, well, Romeo & Juliet with a twist, and the japanese version of the song "You Raise Me Up", which was the OP of this series, was much more interesting to me than the original song. Overall, this show and Kekkaishi are the ones with that show the most promise of all the early afternoon shows. After all I've heard about Seto no Hanayome, I have to say I find it extremely disappointing. There's too much comedy, and for the most part the comedy is more stupid than funny. The first episode was a bore, and I had a nice nap through the second one. I played a game on my cell phone throughout Yakitate Japan. Such a boring show, with such exaggerated comedy, a boring plot and boring characters, that I don't understand what anyone sees in it at all. I can only hope that they either decide to drop it soon, or it gets licensed so they'll be forced to drop it. Otherwise, this series seems to have an endless number of episodes, enough to make me suffer for years of having to find something to do while it's on.
Now for the second half of the afternoon. If you've ever seen Nodame Cantabile, then you know that it's a pretty ok show, focused on music. I never bothered to follow this show past the two episodes that the club showed sometime last semester. It was an ok show, but I wasn't interested enough to go and download episodes. Well, the Live Action movie is really pretty good, and it had me perhaps rethinking my stance on the anime. I might just put this on my list of anime to watch if I get a chance. It has the right mix of comedy, serious elements, interesting characters with depth, and good music. Apparently its spot is, as of this semester, the spot reserved for random new series that they'll be changing every week. Busou Renkin is fairly ordinary as shounen shows go, but it just started to get interesting at the end of episode 14. Well, more interesting than it's been so far. It's really an ok show that I watch cauz it's fairly enjoyable, but again, nothing I'd download. One thing though, and this is a spoiler, so I've made the text white so you need to select it to view it if you don't mind being spoiled: Kazuki's transformation at the end of episode 14, after his supposed "death" because he got a hole pierced through his chest and his kakugane knocked out of him in the process, was very 'Goku turns into a Super Saiyajin' to me. Only I guess Kazuki would be more like Vejita, since his opponent was already in that form before him. For Soukou no Strain, the main character annoyed me to no end with her ugly hairstyle, and also, regarding the end of episode 1, if you can't scream properly, just don't do it at all. God, that was awful. Not to mention pretty pointless, at that point. I only started to dislike her less in the next episode, because she became more competent, less whiny, and more mature. I guess this show has a bit of promise, but I'm certainly looking forward to more of the brother, because he kicks ass. Claymore, I never liked it from the moment I first saw it at the Otakuthon screening where it was shown. I had watched the first episode purely out of curiosity, but it was the generic 'main character slays monster to protect people' theme, plus the main character herself was half a monster, and well, if you know me, you know that I'm already predisposed to dislike most female main characters. This one barely has a personality, so boring. I just skipped watching the episodes entirely this time, but who knows, I might give it more of a chance next week now that we've moved past the introduction of the main character and the sort of 'sidekick' she acquired when she saved him. Now as for D.Gray-Man, as far as I'm concerned, the only thing that keeps it from being a really good show are the highly unnecessary fillers that make up most of this series and make it very boring. The manga is far ahead, that's why it's unnecessary. I've avoided the stupid fillers like the plague, only watching the next episode preview at the end of each to see if the next episode would also be filler. The episodes shown today, the second one was filler, so I left after the first. The first one was mainly the introduction of a new exorcist main character, Lavi, a pretty likeable and friendly guy, as well as Allen dealing with some personal issues. Overall a very good episode, though not as good as, say, the previous Miranda episodes, or the upcoming Crowley episodes. Unfortunately, the next two screenings will also have filler episodes, and with the Halloween special, we should only get back on track with manga material on November 10th.
So overall, the second half of the screening was quite a bit more interesting than the first half. This semester in general will have more interesting shows than the last, so that's something to be thankful for. I'm just hoping this Romeo & Juliet anime adaptation actually gets interesting and doesn't become too cheesy.
Cynthia
You shouldn't suffer too long because of Yakitate Japan, it 'only' has 69 episodes. ^^
As for Claymore, Clare's character will develope in later episodes. Plus, there'll be more Claymores with very different characterizations. Maybe there are others you'd like better. Btw, Raki has the same seiyuu as Matsuka. ^^
As for Claymore, who's Raki? Can't really remember if this is someone you see in episode 1. But yeah, so far Clare's pretty boring. I guess we'll see.
So the other shows, have you seen any of them? ^_^
Cynthia
Raki is the boy who ends up being saved by Clare from the demons (I think it happened right in the beginning). He sticks with her and is a real crybaby. XD
Clare will develope, but I liked some of the other Claymores better. There are a few girls who really kick ass.
I've also seen RxJ (like it, I'm still waiting for the final eps to be subbed), Seto no Hanayome (love it because of Maki the shellfish and Luna-chan, who appear in later episodes), Busou Renkin (watched all of it even though I found it rather boring) and of course DGM. The anime will stop at ep 52 and continue in winter season (back to the manga storyline then). ^_^
I'm following the series I mentioned with our local anime club right now, but there's no way they'll have finished those series by the end of the semester, so I'll have to download episodes if I want to get ahead. Especially with series that have a good chance of being licensed. It's a miracle D.Gray-Man hasn't yet been licensed.
Cynthia
Cynthia
On topic: I like serious (& action) anime too. I'm allergic to animes starring slutty huge boobed teens, anything in super short skirts & magical girls, lol! Claymore is great with lots of fighting sequence (I've finished the series and for once, I watch a series with mainly female cast, gasp!) and IMO it's far better than D.Gray Man. DGM suffered a dip mid season (just like GSD) which turned it into a huge yawn-fest. It picked up after ep39, if I'm not mistaken.
Gods, I'm allergic to those types too! Claymore could never surpass D.Gray-Man to me, and I'm talking about D.Gray-Man as a whole here, meaning the manga and its animated bits, not the countless fillers that have made up over half of the series. I don't know about episode 39, but it gets back on track with the manga at episode 51, which was just last week. Thank god for that. Overall, the D.Gray-Man manga is great, I enjoy this a lot more than Bleach, to which it's been compared. Bleach is more generic to me. Well, here's to hoping the rest of Claymore interests me more than the first episode did. ^_^
Cynthia
And yeah, they gave us fillers for over half the episodes so far. This was pure torture. Thank God I found Terra E... to watch. Do you know it? It ended in Japan the Saturday before last. Pretty great series. ^_^
Cynthia
@terra e: that's the next to watch on my list! I've completed d'loading the whole series and now I watch it one shot. I heard it was good too.
Draker Than Black finished its run and left me confused (maybe I wasn't paying attention and missed some important conversation, lol!) Have you seen it? It's good (anything without lolis is good for me). I don't know what to watch next; maybe Gundam 00. Worse come to worse I'll just rewatch Saiyuki or G.Wing for some old skool action :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_C
Crowley is definitely not a filler character, and he's a fairly strong exorcist. Allen and Lavi are my favorites, but I definitely like Crowley too. ^_^
Terra E... is good, but I didn't like the anime TV series ending as much as the movie and manga endings. The movie and manga endings are almost identical, and I was frankly looking forward to the same ending in the TV series.
I read a summary of the first episode. Apparently there's half a ton of characters in just the first episode, with more to come, so I got disinterested pretty quickly. The plot also didn't seem like much from what the summary of episode 1 said. It was on someone's blog.
Btw, when does Gundam 00 start anyway? I haven't heard or read about any dates. I'll watch it just to see what it's like, but it seems to have a lot of stereotypical women, so I'm just hoping it won't suck.
Cynthia
Btw, let me know when you catch up to the D.Gray-Man manga. What chapter are you on right now? The Suman saga is just great. Portrays Allen at his best, plus Tyki Mik is fairly important in that arc too. At chapter 133 though, the manga has just reached a very interesting point.
Cynthia