Elfen Lied

I had heard alot of praise for Elfen Lied and I think it caused me to imagine all sorts of things about it without ever having actually seen it. Like imagining it was good, for example. I was on a forum one night and someone was complaining about a particular scene in the show with a link to Youtube. I was more taken aback by the juxtaposition of a cutesy, colorful, boringly mainstreamed, low-budget moe animation style with something that looked like it was supposed to be serious, dramatic and bloody than I was by the scene itself. To me it looked like it was pandering to guro fans, and the series didn’t serve to erase this opinion as I watched it out of sheer curiosity. I’ve seen about 10 of the 13 episodes and skipped around the last three for this article but I don’t think I intend to finish watching it. Warning: there will be spoilers because the plot is just too ridiculous for me not to rant about. Oh yeah and there’s going to be graphic images of mutilation so, uh, be aware of that too. Read the rest of this entry »

Hell Girl

Alright, so I lied when I said I hadn’t been watching any new anime. I’ve discovered I can find pretty high quality videos of almost anything on Veoh.com, and since then have been watching more bootlegged fansubs than in my brief stints of using Bit Torrent. Of course I think supporting the industry is still important, so if I really like a series I’ll be likely to purchase it… really, I’ll buy Death Note one of these days!

Anyway, among the anime I’ve been watching recently is Hell Girl. I’ve watched all of the first season and started into the second, and I’m still not really sure about what to think of this series. The main character is quite alluring in her design, but the rest of the series seems to fall flat. Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining, and it can be very pretty at times, but I can’t see it as much more than brain candy.

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Haibane Renmei

What? I’m actually talking about an anime? Surprising, I know, seeing as my last 50 posts (hyperbole) or so have all been about video games. I haven’t really been watching new anime lately, so that effects my urge to write about it. So I was thinking I should just go back through anime I’ve enjoyed in the past.

Actually, I just lied. I finally did finish watching Haibane Renmei recently. What happened was I had seen the first episodes, and the last episodes, but completely missed the middle (entirely because the DVDs weren’t numbered and so I played Russian Roulette in purchasing the next one.) But my good friend Veoh.com came to the rescue as I randomly decided to watch what I had missed one night.

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Death Noted

Not too long ago, I found myself becoming a Death Note fan literally overnight. …It was kind of an accident. You see, after a year or so of people telling me over and over to read Death Note and me ignoring them, I happened to catch the second episode on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, having turned on the TV to that station thinking it was Sunday. By the end of the episode I said to myself "Wow… I didn’t know the main character was this insane" and decided I needed to see more.

I had just been watching Avatar episodes on Veoh.com so I decided to see if Death Note was on there. Sure enough it was and I watched the entire anime series over the course of 3 days. Now I’ve also collected and read all 12 volumes of the manga. At this point I have come to the conclusion that the goth kiddies who carry around little black notebooks and worship "Kira" have completely misinterpreted the plot.

Without many spoilers, I’d like to give a little review of the anime, the manga, and the overall plot. But mostly I wish to discuss how I believe many fans of the show misconstrue the main character Light Yagami entirely.

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Bleach Sucks

Oh here I go on another anime rant, I seem to be stuck in a vicious cycle. A while ago on deviantART someone was complaining about Adult Swim’s lineup, complained about Bleach, but then implied reruns of Cowboy Bebop would be worse. After calling the poster retarded I was quickly reminded of how much I hate the anime Bleach: the story of a boy who can see ghosts and gets the power to turn into an invisable samurai from an emo dead girl.

And before you ask: Yes I did actually watch it. I saw up to the story arc where the characters all ended up in the poorly named "Soul Society", at which point the show went from simply almost unbearable to completely unwatchable, despite numerous people telling me this is where the show is supposed to improve. Why was I watching it? Well it happened air on Adult Swim between Trinity Blood and Eureka 7, two anime I sorta wanted to watch (Eureka 7 wasn’t bad, but wasn’t that good either, and I missed the first few episodes so I still have no idea what the hell was going on in Trinity Blood) and I was too lazy to change the channel.

And no, I didn’t go into watching Bleach with any preconceived notions. I had heard of it, but I had no idea what it was about, so the show had only its own merits on which to impress me. And my first impression was: "Yeah, I liked this show the first time, when it was called Yu Yu Hakusho." Well okay, I’m exaggerating: I never liked Yu Yu Hakusho.

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