Animeted - The Anime Fanblog

Another season goes, another comes. I’m still very much in love with anime but time isn’t in much love with me. Mind you, my desire to do anything other than procrastinate when I’m not working hasn’t helped much. Regardless, at some point, somehow, I’ve managed to watch some of the new stuff that’s come along this season and I’ll share my thoughts, once again, with you, our precious readers. This time, a nice mixture of comedy with Kill Me Baby and Inu x Boku SS as well as sport (and its drama) with Area no Kishi.

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Filed under: 2012 - Winter, Anime, Comedy, Fantasy/Magical, Previews, Senseito's Blogging, Sports | 2 Comments »

C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility

ANN (synopsis): http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=12400

I wanted to watch C first as it was the show I’d been most excited about prior to the season (despite the fact that the trailer looked awful) because the director, Kenji Nakamura (Mononoke, Trapeze), is one of the interesting creators working in anime at the moment.  Alas, I found this very difficult to follow, the first episode had a very bizarre structure, and while this may have been on purpose, I felt confused.  I’d say it was trippy but I think it was deliberately set-out to feel disconcerting. On top of this the animation was disappointingly poor and I had a hard time maintaining interest.

If this wasn’t a noitamina show by Kenji Nakamura I’d give up on it, still though, I’m hoping for some clever anime twists on the murkier side of the Japanese finance industry.

Tiger & Bunny

ANN (synopsis): http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=12198

I checked this out because I’d heard a few good things about it, but I just didn’t like it.  The idea of superheroes in some kind of over-commercial city, fighting crime for ratings and points on a popular TV show, is clever and an apt comment on modern society, but that aside, this is clearly set to turn in to a silly, unfunny, buddy comedy.  Maybe I’m wrong and it wont be as cliche as I’m assuming, but nothing impressed me about it anyway.  And the show has blatant product placement and advertising smartly woven in to the very structure, but as obvious, and yet sharp, as this is, it’s still in your face advertising and it made me a bit uncomfortable.

Read on for: A-Channel, Toriko, and AnoHana…

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Filed under: 2011 - Winter, Action, Adventure, Anime, Comedy, Dark, Fantasy/Magical, gefra's Blogging, Previews, Psychological, Slice of Life, Thriller | No Comments »

I want to try and do something a bit different from the standard previews and reviews (for series at least), because, frankly, I dislike writing them.  So I’ll try and develop a slightly less formal, conversational style, and just give my thoughts and perhaps a score.

Wandering Son

ANN (synopsis): http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=11875 – ‘Shuicihi Nitori appears to be a shy and quiet preteen boy, when he transfers to a new school he quickly makes friends with the tomboyish Yoshino Takatsuki who sits next to him. It soon becomes apparent that both Shucihi and Yoshino are more than simply a sensitive boy and masculine girl, they both are transgendered. Together they decide to take the first steps toward becoming the people they want to be.’

When this series first started I said this was exactly the sort of narrative that interested me these days, and really, I stand by that. It was fairly slow paced, although it managed to cover a lot of ground in a small number of episodes (as far as I know, it cut a lot from the manga source). It was sweet, capturing quite simple, awkward little moments from childhood and presenting them as naïve melodrama. It was relaxed; none of the characters, save one bubbly girl, ever seemed particularly enthusiastic, and it gave the “action” softness and a sense of subtlety. And above all, it felt natural, despite the fact that the main characters (middle-school children) often seemed impossibly mature. The artwork managed to suite that narrative; simple and understated, yet beautiful. While thematically the show deals with quite a complex social issue (transgender and transsexual feelings) in a simple and caring way, never making light of the subject nor becoming too heavy.

Read on for more on Wandering Son and Final Thoughts on Fractale and Bakuman…

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Filed under: 2011 - Winter, Adventure, Anime, Art/Progressive, Drama, Fantasy/Magical, gefra's Blogging, Manga, Reviews, Romance, Sci Fi, Slice of Life | 2 Comments »

Yumekui Merry

Based on a manga, Yumekui Merry follows high school student, Fujiwara Yumeji, who has the unusual ability to see the colours of the persons aura to reflect on their dreams.  One day he meets a strange girl called Merry, who apparently can travers between dreams and reality.  Together they will explore the nature of dreams.

I was fairly sure I’d dislike this.  Seemingly silly story, characters, and character designs, put me off, but it was surprisingly “cool”.  Visually it’s high quality, in the real world portions at least, and I like the obvious difference between the real and the dream worlds.  The plot actually seems like an unusual take on the magic/fantasy genre and some nicely scripted sniping from some secondary characters, who, while barely featuring seemed interesting.  The combat action in the opening episode was disappointingly stunted but otherwise nothing really bothered me and the great sound in particular leads me to hope for a Full Metal Alchemist style contemporary shonen anime.

Interest: none low mediocre some yay

ANN: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=11765

AniDB: http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=7725

Fansub by [gg].

Next: Freezing

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Filed under: 2011 - Winter, Action, Ecchi, Fantasy/Magical, gefra's Blogging, Previews, Sci Fi | No Comments »

I’m running a couple of days later than I proposed.  Blame society!  There’s a lot out, but I’ll do my best to catch Up.  Here’s 3 new previews.  Also, Sensieto cleaned up the formatting on my previous winter preview posts so I’m doing my best to follow the improved look. Although it seems I still can’t work out editing images in WordPress.

Beelzebub

Following a bizarre series of events, Oga Tatsumi, the top badass in the freshman year at a high school full the worst of the worst delinquents comes into the care of an unusual baby who turns out to be the son of the lord of demons.  Together with friends and a group of demons, Oga helps raise the baby.  The anime is based on Ryūhei Tamura’s popular manga.

Ridiculous and irreverent, but none the less entertaining.  The jokes made me smile and it even managed to be quite sweet by the end.  It looks and it sounds adequate, if uninteresting, and never tried to more intelligent than it actually is.  Goofy and predictable, but genuinely fun.  It captured a lot of the same feelings I had about Mitsudomoe back at the start of it’s first season.  Hopefully it won’t fall into the same problems though and conveniently I have a good reason to drop season 2 of that in favour of this now.

Interest: none low mediocre some yay

ANN: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=11858

AniDB: http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=7934

Next: Dragon Crisis! and Kore wa Zombie desu ka?

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Filed under: 2011 - Winter, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy/Magical, gefra's Blogging, Previews, Romance | No Comments »