July 07, 2006

Anime Nibblings

Official Overseas Reader Flotsky asked me to elucidate more about what I was watching, Anime-wise. And so I shall!

I'm watching (or intend to watch) a few different shows right now, actually. All of them are either currently running in Japan or their first run has come to an end. Yes, AnimeSuki is my friend (thanks to the Pixynator for bringing such a useful place to the public attention).

By now, anybody who's browsed teh intarwebs for anime talk has certainly heard about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Heck, I've even posted about it once before. The series has come to an end (14 episodes), and I'm finally going to get around to watching the whole thing. I've seen the first four broadcast eps, and it definitely has my attention. One reason I've waited on it, though, is the way it's been shown. Y'see, Haruhi has been aired in a VERY odd way... seemingly out of order. You watch two episodes, then in the third you've got three new characters, and they refer to things that already happened, but we haven't seen yet. So I waited for the whole thing to become available, in case it was thought better to watch it in chronological, as opposed to broadcast, order. It's been suggested that I should both... so I prolly will (the chronological order is mentioned in the previews for the next episode, by the way).

Also on my watch-list is a show that I never thought I'd like: Ouran High School Host Club. Shojo-like series have always been a big turnoff for me... the animes that have prettyboys with overt homosexual overtones and (as SDB calls it) 'pointy chins' has never done it for me. And while this show certainly has some of that (and EVERY character has a chin you could use as a spear), there's something about it that makes me keep coming back. Perhaps it's that the main character is actually female, dressed as a guy... but I'd like to think I'm not THAT shallow! There's a definite sense of dry humor running through the show that meets my fancy, and as long as you can get past the character designs (chins that would be at home in a dartboard), it's pretty nice to look at, visually. I've watched three of the six I've d/l'd, but there are more than that available... I haven't checked if it's a 13 or a 26 ep show, but at the pace it's currently going, I'd guess 26. Plot so far: poor girl (dressed like a guy) attends rich high school, stumbles into odd gigolo-like club, breaks expensive vase, and is forced into joining the club... as a 'host', which makes her one of the most lusted-after guys in the school. Cue hijinks!

More after the jump: Imagine this... your family is one of vampires. Not quite the scary Bela Lugosi type, but more of the gothic lolita/Morticia Addams style. Okay, that's fine, but there's one catch: YOU are a rare mutant defective vampire. You don't suck blood... you expel blood! In great shooting arcs! You still have all the normal vampiric urges, you just don't HURT your victims in doing so, you refresh them. Obviously you're a freak. Wait, it gets worse for you... you're female, and whenever you get excited, the blood wants to come out, and you DON'T have the normal vampiric ability to make people forget that you were there (since you're a defective vampire). Oh, and the mysterious new transfer student makes you all tingly.... That's the beginning of Karin, which is based on a manga that's available here in the US (and presumably in the UK) called "Chibi Vampire." This one, I've seen the first one-and-a-half episodes of, and while that's not really enough to judge anything, what I've seen, I've enjoyed.

I've always enjoyed the work of the group calling themselves CLAMP. Their work has included Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, and Angelic Layer, all classics (well, maybe not Chobits) in their own right. Their most recent anime work is an attempt to tie ALL of their series together in a nice, tight ball: xxxHOLiC. Despite the title, it's NOT pr0n: the "xxx" is a placeholder, for ANYthing one can be addicted to (ergo the "holic"). This one might be a rare misstep for CLAMP, but it might just be me. I've not seen all the CLAMP-based animes, so I might be missing something here and there. The character designs are... odd; very cartoony, with long, LONG arms and legs... more spidery than human. I'm struggling with this show for that very reason. I've liked what I've seen, but it's hard to watch at times.

Take a cute girl, drop her into an all-girls' school, and put them all into dorms. Shake well... what do you get? Strawberry Panic, of course. Some of these characters are just flat-out horny (though not in an ecchi way... yet), truth be told. This is NOT high art, folks. It's a definite guilty pleasure, though. Want an idea what it's like? Try the video linked in this post. Warning: keyboard/monitor cover required.

I've got a couple of other shows on my HD that I've not gotten around to yet, like the first four episodes of Kokoro Library, a series that my friend The Librarian thought sounded interesting, or a few episodes of the legendary Kanon, which Megatokyo's Fred Gallagher worships, or the trashy Joshikousei, which appears to be a panty-shot delivery vehicle, but I can't confirm or deny that as I've not watched more than a couple of minutes of the first episode. Plenty of anime to keep me busy!

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