1601

I need to watch the anime again, but I think the anime ends with the third book, which I have sitting on my shelf ready to read next. From what I can tell we should get 3 or 4 more books from Tokyo Pop depending on how they partition things out.

Since I can’t read Moon Speak yet I have no idea how the untranslated novels end, whether it’s abrupt or not. Wikipedia says a new short story by Ono was released in Feb. 2008 after a seven? year hiatus, so it’s not completely dead.

1602

Yup. The animation studio doesn’t want to make any more episodes of the series until some more of the books come out, and the author isn’t writing them any more.

1603

That’s tragic.

1604

Yeah, I think episode 10 or 11 of Gurren Lagann is where it grabbed held of me and I couldn’t stop watching. When Simon starts to come into his own.

1605

This is quite old, but I hadn’t seen it before: DeathSponge NotePants

1606

Seconded. Rrrgh.

Let’s see what jumps out at me from that spring preview… I’m making my way through Valkyria Chronicles (the game) right now, so I might as well take a look at the anime. I was not a fan of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime, but I still really liked certain aspects of it, so I’ll see if the remake is more to my taste. Guin Saga sounds unique, and is based on novels rather than manga, which is generally a plus for me - novel-adaptations such as LOGH, 12K, and Crest of the Stars are overrepresented amongst my favourite anime. The one that most piques my interest, though, is Souten Kouro. Cao Cao reimagined as the hero? Given my love for antiheroes and genre revisionism (Black Company, GRRM, The First Law…), this sounds really promising.

1607

I caught the first episode of Valkyria Chronicles. It makes me want to play the game again, but using the static stencil effect from the game in the anime can get a little distracting.

I also watched Basquach!, which I found more entertaining that I thought I would when I first heard it described.

1608

I watched Fullmetal Alchemist, and it’s odd but neat that they can just get on with the rewrite of the story without any need to reintroduce anyone. Bradley shows up, is scary. Check. Lust and Glutton says some foreshadow-y things. Check. Let’s see if they can make the story go really quickly now. (But episode 2 is the origin episode. Pause.)

K-ON is Lucky Star without the jokes. Waste of time.

Basquach! has the most perfect round spherical breasts ever drawn on TV. They’re like modeled after basketballs. I don’t know what happens after them…

1609

So is FMA actually just a restart but a rewriting of the original plot as a continuation of the anime? That’s most confusing to me (though I probably won’t watch it anyway).

Eden of the East looks interesting so far, love the production numbers, an interesting semi-GITS-style movement (this time quoting from Shakespeare I believe), an Oasis opening song of all things and a funky end sequence.

— Alan

1610

It’s a faithful adaptation of the manga. The original was faithful to the manga up until the halfway point but at that point they were caught up so instead of going the filler route, they just made all new content. Now, five or so years later, the manga is almost finished.

So the early part will be previously covered ground. I think the plan is to accelerate things a bit (so they’ll reach the divergence point well before episode 26) and then slow down once they hit all new material.

The general consensus seems to be that the manga is better than the original anime.

1611

Ohhh. That offers a kind of explaination why I started off enjoying FMA but eventually started to dislike it.

1612

I’ve watched Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea yesterday, and as usual with Ghibli movies, it’s very well drawn and amazing, everyone should watch it. I also liked the story, it’s more intelligible than Princess Mononoke and some other incomprehensible stories by Myazaki.

1613

I’m really excited to see how they pull off the FMA reboot. I loved the original, but so far the new episodes have been quite good. They’ve already diverted on a few points as I’ve noticed. Ed’s encounter with the gateway has already been altered substantially. And they’ve changed the way Ed realizes his ability to transmute without circles.

1614

Those were two changes made for the anime that, IIRC, made the Japanese manga-oriented fandom rage pretty early on, before it was clear that the anime was heading toward a wholly original (er, well, “original”) ending.

1615

Quick toss for Spice and Wolf. I just finished season 1 (s2 airs in May), and I was pleasantly surprised with the entire show. It’s very detailed in how it regards Mercantile business, and some of actually went over my head (I had to watch episodes a few times to understand the “merchant speak”) but it really is an amazing series. Plus, I got to see S1 on BluRay, which doesn’t hurt. There’s no mecha, no BS, it’s just a fantastical historical series that really knows how to hit home. I’d have to say that even though the new season has started, I’d fore-go any series I’ve watched to see more Spice and Wolf.

Anyway, that said. There is, of course, the spring season, and lots of new series. My judgment:

  1. Eden of the East – tops at #1. It’s inventive, entertaining, and the characters are brilliant, as well as the mysterious story.

  2. Phantom - Requiem for the Phantom – I didn’t know what to make of this from the start, but it’s really getting great. It’s about assassins, and that’s really all I should say. Episodes 2 and 3 clinched it, even though ep1 was intriguing to begin with. Definitely a keeper.

  3. Tears to Tiara. I wasn’t expecting much from this series after the first ep, but 2 and 3 have me hooked. It’s a bit bloody though (lots of blood sprays when someone gets hit) but the Gaelic background and misconceptions about Arawn make it plenty interesting.

  4. FMA Brotherhood. Unfortunately, we’ve seen most of this so far. I know it’s a direct interpretation of the manga and blah blah blah, but so far, if you’ve seen the first series, it’s really just FMA in hi-def. Which isn’t really a bad thing, but you’re not going to be in for too many surprises. Again, this is a remake, based on strict interpretation from the manga, not a sequel – so keep that in mind. You’ll see a lot of things you’ve already seen. But it’s very well-executed, sharp, and, well, FMA. I’ll definitely watch.

  5. 07 Ghost. Very weird and convoluted first ep, but having seen 2 and 3, I actually like it quite a bit. It’s not your conventional anime by any means, and it may confuse and distort at times, but it does rivet. There’s something behind it that I just can’t describe that makes me just want to watch more. I’ll forewarn, though, it is an oddball. But some of us like that, so whatever.

  6. Valkyria Chronicles. Yes, based on the game. Surprisingly faithful to the setting and animation. You won’t like it until the end of ep3. If you still don’t like it after that, stop watching. Nuff said.

  7. Finally, Shangri-La. As a series, it has huge potential, but it just isn’t meeting that potential in the 3 episodes I’ve seen. I believe it’s Gonzo, which is odd, because usually Gonzo has a way of pulling you in from the start and not letting go. Shangri-La has moments, but nothing encompassing. I’ll continue watching, but beyond that, nothing more to say.

Everything else, though, I’ve hated. Although I have been indulging my laughter by watching Queen’s Blade, where in the first episode the main character is attacked by another girl who uses acid breast milk as her weapon. She’s then defeated by the main character by sealing her nipples, pinning her to the ground, until her breasts become the size of small buildings, and explode. It’s hilarious and one shot short of hentai. Anyway. I laughed.

1616

  1. I quite liked Spice and Wolf, and am looking forward to s2. Note that the “merchant speak” wasn’t helped by a poor translation - at least in the fansubs I saw.

  2. Hah, well said. I watched ep 1 and gave up after that; Alicia and Welkin are even stupider than in the prologue of the game, I much prefer the game’s introduction of the Edelweiss, and perhaps worst of all, not only do I dislike the anime’s art style, it suffers even more badly when set alongside the game’s art, which I adore. What starts to change in ep 3+?

1617

The best is, by far, Hatsukoi Limited :)

Big cast of characters, typical japanese craziness and the screenplay is pure genius.

1618

Episode 3 is the first time Welkin leads his squad into battle. It puts off a bit of a Galactic Heroes vibe: inexperienced but smart officer needs to win over skeptical grognards through his first trial-by-fire.

So far my biggest complaint about VC is both the leads are pretty bland. I’m grateful that Welkin is neither an angst-ridden whiner nor a hot-headed moron, which seem to be the two most common archetypes in military anime, but that’s about all he has going for him. Alicia’s got a good voice actress but so far seems pretty predictable in her behavior.

1619

I seem to find these new series quite shallow. I have mostly seen just the first episode of each.

Valkyria Chronicles is already plain and shallow in the art style. Quite perfunctory and unimpressive. The setting could be interesting but for now it is also quite superficial, and too much of the plot is way forced and unbelievable, like when they chat about bread while two tanks outside fire on the house, or how freely the girl throws a grenade at some men yelling “YATTA!” and without any trace of drama. It’s disconcerting.

Tears to Tiara, again forgettable art style and long talking, boring sequences driving most of the first episode. Predictable from beginning to end and lacking any interesting aspect whatsoever. Just the typical fantasy word with the heroine kidnapped to be sacrificed to some demon. I was bored.

Souten Koruo, pretentious historical setting. Like Hokuto no Ken, with insane battles with rivers of (black) blood. The first episode was really hard to follow as all the plot advanced through an external narrator. At some point there’s a duel done completely through “quotes”, it could be quite funny but I guess much of it was lost in translation. Art isn’t really good either. It probably works better if you’re part of that culture and know those characters.

Sengoku Basara. This one is worth watching just because it is excessively over the top. With the most crazy and unrealistic battles EVER. Like typical Shonen but lacking any pretense of seriousness. It has a good pacing, doesn’t feel as boring as the other and when it tries with humor it seems to succeed. The art here is decent and character design is insane but good and inventive. It also presents all characters at once through a quick cameo.

The other three left that I’ve seen are good. Fullmetal Alchemist I watched for the first time. The first episode was a confusing mess, but the second was quite good. It’s a good anime. Eden of the East is rather slow and minimalistic, but it has splendid characterization and the few mysterious elements are well played. It also seems quite original. The king of all, as already said, remains Hatsukoi. Good art, great characters and executes splendidly what it wants to be. You watch an episode and when it’s over it seems time flew.

1620

Here and there, then and now or whatever it was called, was really a good series, one of the highlights besides Cowboy bebop, but after that I’ve had problems…like the guy says, YATTA + grenade = deep plot.

if I got time, I’ll try some recommendations here.