Upcoming anime comments

Hey, a post about anime! Fancy that.

I'm not going to do one of those winter anime season previews, mostly because nearly all of the shows coming out these days are totally indistinguishable moe/harem comedies, but there are a few upcoming series that stand out from the pack, some for better reasons than others.

Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor ep.02-03

Why do character designers think -_- is a good facial expression to represent evil and/ or insanity?

Darker then Black: Gemini of the Meteor (originally sub-titled "Sagitarius of the Quasar" and then "Capricorn of the Cepheid Variable") continues to intrigue with these two episodes.

Let's Watch Toward the Terra: Episode 17

Episode 17:

 

Let's Watch Toward the Terra: Episode 13

Episode 13: What hides on the Planet

Here's the 13th episode of Toward the Terra, retroactively posted because I was too lazy to do it before the 14th one. Apologies for the image quality, I hadn't really gotten a handle on this whole screen-capping thing when I took them.

Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor episode 01

I watched about five or six episodes of Darker than Black before being stopping. It had a seemingly engaging overall plot, but the two-episode arcs really didn't hold my interest. So I'm glad to see that this sequel series seems (*three word alliteration combo*) to be a very different kind of anime altogether.

First off, although obviously destined to focus on Japan, this episode at least is set in Russia, which is a welcome change of location for an anime series. The main character this time round is an ordinary person rather than a super-powered bad-ass, and she's surprisingly likeable. It's very hard to find female anime characters who are more than otaku bait these days outside of shojou series, so I'll take anything I can get.

Even more intrugingly, the super-powered bad ass from the previous series is a villain. Like I said, I didn't watch Darker Than Black to the end so I don't know whether I should be surprised that Hei is a bad guy this time round (or is he? Maybe he's working for the good guys and the people he kills here are evil, or this is one of them Moral Ambiguity shows. I'm really not sure). At the moment I have enough background information to tell what's going on vis a vis the contractors and their super-power OCD, but my ability to enjoy this series will depend on whether that's enough to get me through.

One thing I remember about the original Darker than Black was the fight scenes. This episode ends on a short but sweet one featuring some really smooth animation and camera tricks. Plus two characters get mercilessly bumped off, both of whom I had already grown to like. Always a plus.

A Certain Scientific Railgun episode 01 review

I should say up front here that I didn't watch the series this is based off (A Certain Magical Index) and know next to nothing about the setting or plot. In fact I'm really just watching it because the show's title is hilarious.

With that out of the way, lets see what this thing is all about.

Let's Watch Toward the Terra: episode 16

Episode 16: Omen of Change

Let's Watch Toward the Terra: episode 15

Episode 15: Omen of change

Let's watch Toward the Terra: 14

Episode 14: Identical Memories

Toward the Terra is a sci-fi space opera series that went under a lot of people's radar for whatever reason, possibly because the first three episodes suck, but many who gave it a chance found it to be an overlooked gem. And by many I mean "me" of course.

So here's a Let's Watch, in which I make fun of low-resolution screenshots of the series and then review the episode in question, starting with episode 14 because that's when I got the idea. Grab some popcorn and get ready:

King of Thorn

There's this manga I've been seeing on store shelves all over the place called King of Thorn. Every time I see it I think "hey that looks interesting, maybe I should buy it" but for some reason I never do. I think it's because while the opening scenario sounds great, I'm half convinced the actual execution wil spoil it.

And so it seems to have. Witness this trailer for the upcoming King of Thorn movie: intruiging sci-fi concept! Artsy shot of a petrified woman falling out of a building! It's not set in Japan!

And then they wake up and there are badly rendered monsters everywhere. The trailer also loses browny points for ripping off Evangelion: Death and Rebirth* and for the engrish ("What happened on Earth?" What indeed).


* Or Weevilgelion: Death^2X+3/ True Rebirth Super God Edition or whatever the hell version is the "definitive" one