Dagger

My mom, my little sister, and I all chipped in to get my Dad the latest iPhone. (He sure loves his toys and gadgets, so it was an easy choice.) We actually gave it to him a few weeks ago, and he's been gleefully playing with it ever since. I got my mom the CD audiobook of Haruki Murakami's [url="http://www.amazon.com/1Q84-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0307593312/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324783469&sr=8-1"]1Q84[/url] for her to listen to during her long commutes. It's one of my favorite books of all time, and massive to boot. It was published in three fat hardcover volumes in Japan, so it should last her a while.

I'm watching more than I expected this season, at least for now. Yay. [b]Hunter x Hunter[/b] puts a big goofy grin on my face with every episode. Honestly, it doesn't even really matter what happens in the story. The characters are a breath of fresh air (and yet delightfully familiar at the same time, thanks to the 1999 series). I don't know how to account for my reaction except to say that it's just so much [i]fun[/i]. [b]Un-Go[/b] makes me smile, too. What can I say? I love detective stories. The actual mysteries haven't been anything mind-blowing at this point, but they do the job well enough, and the character interaction is so enjoyable to watch. [b]Guilty Crown[/b] makes me angry. What a waste of lovely animation. I'm actually baffled by the sloppiness and lack of imagination in the writing and story department. It almost seems like you couldn't come up with such an absurd pastiche of plot shortcuts and cliches without actively trying. Yet the series seems to be taking itself 100% seriously, which is perhaps its gravest sin. Too bad. I'll watch it just for the visual fireworks, but the moment it starts looking as shoddy as its script, I'm outta here. Haven't seen the second episode of the [b]Last Exile[/b] sequel yet, but I was super pleased with how they've [spoiler]brought back Dio,[/spoiler] who is still one of my all-time favorite side characters. I was listening to the Kaleido Star soundtrack the other day, and it inspired me to check out [b]Chihayafuru[/b]. Only after I started it did I realize how much I've been craving a series like this. And it's so darn pretty, too. Also trying to keep up with [b]Tamayura[/b], although it's easy to let episodes of a show like this pile up unwatched, since it doesn't have the sense of urgency that you'd get from something heavily plot-driven.

I'm so busy with work and school right now, but I'm definitely going to make time for [b]Hunter x Hunter[/b]. It's the first anime in a while that airs at a reasonable hour and that I'm actually interested in watching live, as it were--not that my TV is anything to write home about, haha. The first episode got my hopes up and brought a lot of good memories back.

[quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1310548928' post='708362'] [color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"] On a much happier note, I got caught up with [b]Tiger & Bunny[/b] the other day. Man, I love this show to death. I'm not huge on shounen, but this is just a great show. It's restored my faith in a lot of modern anime, which says something, since I've had a hard time getting into a lot of it in recent years.[/font][/color] [/quote] Wow, maybe I should check this out. It kind of flew under my radar, but I've seen so many people saying good things about it. I'm watching more anime this season than I have in a long time, so it's a great new crop of shows as far as I'm concerned! And for the first time in my life, a visual novel I love to death ([b]Steins;Gate[/b]) has finally, [i]finally[/i] gotten a non-excruciatingly painful anime adaptation. It's quite good, actually, and seems to have been well received in both the Japanese and English-speaking fandoms. It's like Chaos;Head and Togainu no Chi were sacrificial victims offered up to ensure that at least this one title wouldn't get eviscerated in the transition from game to animation. Well, I don't know what kind of voodoo the producers had to perform to make sure Steins;Gate would be spared the Nitro+ anime curse, but I could practically cry from happiness that the TV series doesn't suck. Yet.

I recently had the incredible good fortune to see the new Makoto Shinkai movie ([b]Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo[/b], aka Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below) in theaters. No need for me to wax eloquent about the visuals--they're ravishing, obviously. When the trailer first popped up online, I wasn't sure how I felt about the Ghibli-style character designs, but I think they were actually just right for this film. Many elements of Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo come across as an homage to various Miyazaki movies, and yet the atmosphere and the plot and the way in which those elements are used ended up being unlike any Miyazaki movie I've seen. Despite the epic scale, the story is fundamentally and utterly rooted in the characters' emotions... I'm struggling to capture my reaction in words, and this is purely a personal response, but it frankly felt richer and deeper and more perfectly whole to me than any of the Ghibli films to which it invites comparison. I was sure I could see where it was going at the beginning, but many developments came as a pleasant surprise to me. I really look forward to seeing it again in the future. I can imagine myself watching this many, many times.

I read the first novel many years ago, because a few friends heartily recommended it to me. I don't have an inherent aversion to gritty fantasy, and I'm all for morally ambiguous (or outright cruel and conniving) characters, but there was one character I actually liked in the entire cast. (The young girl--I've forgotten her name.) I found every other major player reprehensible. Maybe it'd be more fun to watch them sabotage and manipulate each other in TV series form. I dunno, did anyone else have that kind of reaction?

I loved Texhnolyze, but I don't know if I could bring myself to watch it again (even though I probably should--I think a lot about it would sink in much better on a second viewing, at least for me). It might be the most relentlessly--and effectively--bleak anime I've ever seen... The most recent thing I watched was the first episode of C. The CG usage reminded me of Gankutsuou, and the character who came to tempt the protagonist (I forgot both of their names already, haha) obviously stole the show. Really high expectations for this one.

I was walking down the street today, and a pair of nice-looking Korean ladies said they were students and wanted to ask me a question for a survey. I didn't have to go anywhere in a rush, so I told them sure. Next thing I knew, they were preaching about how the earthquake is some kind of Biblical sign of the end times. It was much easier to extricate myself than it would've been in the U.S., but the whole encounter was pretty startling. While there are always people who interpret tragedies like that in the States, I never imagined I'd encounter the same sort of stuff in Japan.

I feel so fortunate to be in Kumamoto, which has been relatively unaffected by the disaster. The scale of this thing is absolutely staggering.

[quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1298621439' post='705243'] [color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"][b]Chrono Crusade[/b] started airing on Syfy this past Tuesday, which I am going to be watching, as I've wanted to see it for years. Too early to really judge, but I've reached a bit of a problem with Rosette -- character-wise, I already love her to death...but her English voice is the first one in a long time that I really just do not like -- and I am the furthest thing from a sub snob. I'm sure it'll get better as the series wears on, since it was just the first two episodes, but...augh. The fact that she was prone to screaming a lot did NOT help.[/font][/color] [/quote] I had the exact same problem when I first started watching this. I [i]think[/i] I did end up seeing the whole thing dubbed, but I can't quite remember. I'll admit that I'm the kind of person who totally lets an irritating voice (in either Japanese or English) ruin my impression of a character, so I actually really disliked Rosette for at least the first half of the series. I ended up enjoying the second half and the ending a lot more than the beginning, though, for whatever it's worth--and my unfair dislike of her went away eventually. The spastic comedy just did not do anything for me, especially in the opening episodes. I have a few movies and OVAs I need to watch, but right now I'm sloooowly working my way through [b]Tamayura[/b].

I recently rewatched all of [b]Soukyuu no Fafner[/b] and then saw the movie, which was glorious--truly a dream come true. I never imagined they'd create a proper theatrical sequel to a midlist mecha series... six full years after it first aired, to boot. I mean, in what world does that happen? I have no idea who made the Faustian bargain that was no doubt required to produce [url="http://fafner.jp/h-and-e/"]the film[/url], but I'm grateful for it. It picks up pretty much right where the TV series and OVA left off, elevating minor characters while giving the main cast their due. The animation is spectacular, the music is epic, and the storyline is appropriately confusing but makes just enough sense to hold everything together. Can't wait to get it on Blu-ray. As for TV series, lately I've been watching [b]Hourou Musuko[/b] (the most singularly perfect anime I've seen in ages) and [b]Madoka Magica[/b] (very creative and laden with the potential to become something mind-blowing). Dropped [b]Gosick[/b] and decided to keep reading the novels instead. Whereas Hourou Musuko takes advantage of its animation, soundtrack, etc. to become--if anything--more emotionally evocative than the manga source material, Gosick uses those elements as a crutch to compensate for the fact that its actual storyline has been greatly simplified. It's still kind of interesting to see how they're adapting it, but I'd rather finish getting through the novels first than risk getting spoiled by the anime. Hoping to see more of [b]Level E[/b] soon, too.