Dagger

[SIZE="1"]I remember the first time I read about Alice and possibly Aria in general, well before I actually started watching it, was in [url=http://that.animeblogger.net/2006/11/22/alice-carroll-in-aria-wonderland-pictures-galore/][u]this guy's blog post[/u][/url]. (Lovely pictures.) ETA: Yeah, Aria is not the kind of show that can be enjoyed on a website. It requires peace and calm and immersion. Akari & co. demand that you give them your full attention. :catgirl:[/SIZE] ----------------- Aria the Origination [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZnJh3Fs46E][u]promo[/u][/url]! :love: ~Dagger~

[quote name='Shinmaru'] - [b]Kafka On the Shore[/b][/QUOTE] This is wonderful. Also, I commend whoever gave you Murakami for a) having good taste in literature, or b) being aware that [i]you[/i] have good taste. ;) ETA: Hoping to see Sweeny Todd soon as well. ~Dagger~

The big ones for me were a digital camera & an external hard drive, which made me overwhelmingly happy. It was so much more than I expected, and just what I'd been thinking of buying for myself. :catgirl: There were also a couple of nice little gifts--a cookbook with 500 (!!) cookie recipes, a squishy pillow from my sister, new pajamas (annual tradition), Godiva chocolate, etc. ~Dagger~

Just a heads-up for mecha fans... [url=http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2007/12/25/macross-frontier-01/][u]Random Curiosity[/u][/url] makes Macross Frontier seem pretty awesome. Looking forward to checking out the first episode for myself. It's funny--I was aware there was a new Macross show in the works, but I didn't realize it was coming along this soon. ~Dagger~

Today I finished [b]Chevalier[/b] and [b]ef - a tale of memories[/b], which have turned out to be two of my favorite shows in recent years. Re: Chevalier... [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=54381][u]Tow Ubukata[/u][/url] is my goddamn hero. I can only pray that he & Production IG join forces once more (as much as I love his Xebec mecha shows, this is a cut above just about, well, everything). He's so good at managing large casts and making each character come into his/her own at climactic moments. Re: ef, I already posted some impressions in the ef thread, but I will say that I almost can't believe how up & down and hot & cold I felt about the series in the beginning episodes. Surveyed as a whole, I personally think it's the best eroge --> anime adaptation ever made. Not necessarily the best eroge-based show or anything like that, but as an [i]adaptation[/i], it succeeds by casting new light on the pre-existing material without losing its spirit. It's not a line-for-line animated version or anything... it feels much more valuable than that--necessary, even, because of the unique qualities it brings that could only be present in a TV animation rather than in a visual novel. (In cases like this it's usually the other way around--you get a sense of loss, not gain, in the transition from one form to another.) ~Dagger~

[SIZE="1"]I hope that's not [i]the[/i] end for them. Granted, I have trouble seeing how the writers could turn it around even a little bit... :animedepr [url=http://hashihime.blogspot.com/2007/12/voice-actresses-in-ef-tale-of-memories.html][u]Hashihime[/u][/url] has a cool feature on the main voice actresses of ef. It's hard to believe that Chihiro is played by a 36-year-old. [/SIZE] -------------------------------------------- Incredible, incredible final episode. (And it[I] is[/I] final... they used the letter D in an epilogue called 'dream,' sneaky bastards.) Not going to comment on the content right now, but I will say that I now feel way more than justified in deciding to buy the R2 DVDs (volume 1 & the prologue should have shipped already... I might take a couple of photos to show the box art etc. when they get here). The changes in the OP alone made me giddy with joy, haha. Major bonus points for using the game vocal theme right where it truly belongs. "Everything I hoped for and more" pretty much sums things up, and I had high expectations to begin with. Okay, I lied... just a few words about what happened. :p I'm nervous that ep. 12 will see a backlash for [spoiler]being a so-called cop-out,[/spoiler] although I suppose opinions will be divided as usual... I've already seen people respond to it both favorably & unfavorably. (ef does seem to be a love it or hate it show in general.) I want to argue that the writers performed a brilliant sleight-of-hand trick in [spoiler]making us focus so much on the significance of the diary.[/spoiler] They foreshadow the later events of ep. 12 [spoiler]in Renji's seemingly unrelated conversation with Kuze, when Kuze emphasizes feelings, thoughts, emotions.[/spoiler] Despite that huge clue, I still didn't pick up on what was about to come. And yet it makes perfect sense. [spoiler]Memory and emotion are entwined and yet not the same thing at all. Chihiro forgot what happened in the torn out diary pages--in other words, she forgot the entire history of her relationship with him, but she couldn't forget Renji himself. She couldn't tear out her love for him, and she couldn't force herself to stop thinking about him.[/spoiler] That was my interpretation, anyway: that [spoiler]she was unable to discard her feelings for Renji or the simple fact of his existence, even if she forgot the time she spent with him (because the time limit was too long for her to do so, as she explains).[/spoiler] I loved how [spoiler]Renji is later shown becoming the guardian of memory in her stead, almost, by writing their story himself.[/spoiler] Over the course of the show, for all the characters, the focus shifts from memories (the past) to feelings (the present & future). ~Dagger~

Ah, so you watched Haruhi in chronological order... For the record, episode 6 is the ending in broadcast order. ~Dagger~

[url=http://www.moetron.com/2007/12/21/kodomo-no-jikan-dvd-episodes-12-uncut/][u]If you wanted to know what was censored...[/u][/url] although the water fountain scene has zero impact compared to the manga, haha. ~Dagger~

[B]Chevalier[/B] volume 5 is one of the single most epic anime discs I've seen. Amazing visuals (this show has the best Western-style sword fights in any anime except maybe the Utena movie, which doesn't totally count) and so many plot twists that it felt more like watching twenty episodes than just four. And it's not even the end! Le Chevalier d'Eon falls into the same category as shows like Fantastic Children, Seirei no Moribito, Noein and so forth... really well produced & has a compelling premise, but kind of makes you work to sit through it, especially at the beginning. (Then pummels you with pay-off after pay-off as things develop.) I guess anime with this much money & directorial confidence behind them don't need to win viewers with cheap thrills in early episodes. I am also [strike]very embarrassed to admit that I'm[/strike] watching [size=1]Koutetsu Sangokushi[/size]. I'd say that it's a bastardization of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but nothing can have the same sacrilege shock value as Ikkitousen. Goes heavy on the tragic!BL undertones. Mamoru Miyano voices the main character & sings the ED song. At this point I'm mainly looking forward to the epic lulz that will no doubt ensue when he discovers that his teacher (played, of course, by Takehito Koyasu on autopilot) is pure evil & was destined to be the final boss from practically the first frame... ~Dagger~

God help me, I liked the ending. (Polished off disc six this afternoon.) It made as little sense as the rest of the show, so I wasn't much annoyed by the lack of clarity; I'll spend some time reading explanatory blog posts etc. until it clicks for me. What I found hilarious yet oddly uplifting about the last episode was how it went straight from DYSTOPIAN APOCALYPSE to a classic [spoiler]buddy-flick[/spoiler] finale, right down to the freeze-frames. Honestly, that was the absolute last thing I expected. But hey, for whatever reason, it put a huge grin on my face. ~Dagger~

Looking forward to Mnemosyne, Aria the Origination and Gunslinger Girl the most (roughly in that order, I suppose). Won't touch Persona until I've played the game; won't touch Zetsubou Sensei until it's done and I can marathon it (or not) at my leisure. A couple things about [b]Mnemosyne[/b]: It's a 10th anniversary project for broadcaster AT-X. The companies animating it are Xebec (Fafner, The Third, Heroic Age, plenty of other stuff) and Genco (which seems to have done miscellaneous work on a lot of shows... I'm guessing that they're here for CG help or something?). The most noteworthy thing about it, in my mind, is that it's a full-CG anime. If the trailer is true to the in-show quality, it's also the only CG anime I've seen yet that succeeds in basically looking and feeling like a hand-drawn series. I was ready to dismiss it as soon as I heard about that aspect of the production, but the trailer really surprised & swayed me. The other reason I'm interested (besides, well, assassins and yuri) is that the original character designs are by Chuo Higashiguchi, who has done a lot of great work for eroge, especially dark action-oriented games. I absolutely love how he draws mature women. For that matter, the main character of Mnemosyne reminds of me one of my favorite older designs of his, the [url=http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/2734/saya6qk8.jpg][u]butt-kicking[/u][/url] [url=http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2912/saya12ao0.jpg][u]doctor[/u][/url] from Saya no Uta. Screenplay is by someone who's worked on Noein, RahXephon, Aquarion, Eureka Seven, etc. ~Dagger~

I'm most interested by the copyright dates, heh. :animeswea Sounds like that leaves us with a fall 2008 / winter 2009 run... but I don't see how KyoAni is going to fill up the time between--other than with the "unnamed light novel adaptation" (more FMP??) that keeps getting mentioned--unless Clannad gets extended. Anyway, no reason for them not to do a full-length season of Haruhi, now that they've already pulled it off with Kanon and Lucky Star and (although it's still in-progress) Clannad. ~Dagger~

That's part of the fun of getting deeper into a hobby... seeing how your tastes shift. :catgirl: Every time I think my favorites have stabilized, some new (or old) show jumps onto the list. ([b]ef[/b] and [b]Mononoke[/b] are the latest intruders, I think). I especially like keeping track of this kind of thing for video games & manga and such, since I've spent less time with them than I have with anime, and it leaves me more prone to getting swept off my feet. ~Dagger~

Episode 11 was... I almost don't know what to say. I still don't understand how such a short series based on a pre-existing work can have so [i]much[/i] to it. I was amazed at how the girl's portraits were brought to completion as a perfect metaphor for Chihiro's diary at the same time that Chihiro and Renji's story reached its climax. On one hand, that was just a secondary effect of the fictional and "real" worlds converging, and yet it demonstrates an attention to detail that's hard to find in other shows. It was chilling to hear Chihiro's voice narrate the scenes of the girl watching the happy couple move in the painting and to realize that this was Chihiro's exact experience: for her, reading her diary equates to witnessing a happiness she can't touch. She can only know it, not feel it or remember it. As it happens, I spoiled myself for the ending of the episode before watching it. That's part of the reason why I put off seeing it; I just didn't understand how the writers could possibly make a development like that make sense. But they justified it in spades. Don't quote me on this, but I think this is scheduled to be a 12-episode series? I guess that means there will probably be a DVD-only episode 13 (to complete the EUPHORIC FIELD pattern of episode titles). Given the lack of a preview and the potential for a DVD episode follow-up, I have no idea what episode 12 will contain. I wouldn't even be surprised if it switched over to Yuuko and Himura. At this point, though, I don't think that they're going to touch more than the very beginning of the Kyousuke story--they just don't have room for it. ~Dagger~

Man, it's been a while. Just finished volume 4 and am hoping to have the rest of Chevalier on hand shortly. I'm surprised at how much the series manages to defy prediction even at this point. I mean, the general direction is made obvious enough in the OP, but I have no idea [spoiler]how Robespierre or even Durand[/spoiler] are going to swing (to heighten the suspense, of course, I'm trying my best to erase all vestiges of French-history knowledge from my mind :p). A few superficial observations: - Lia's Psalm-reading voice is shiver-inducing. I'm so excited that the same seiyuu will be playing Claes (my favorite!) in the upcoming second season of Gunslinger Girl. - The animators seem to draw Robespierre more carefully than anyone else, haha. I don't think I've seen him go off-model once. - Why is Durand so much more attractive when [spoiler]he's stuck with one arm & being tortured[/spoiler]!? ~Dagger~

I'm afraid not (it's pretty new--just came out in November). [url=http://www.visual-novels.net/vn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=618&Itemid=81][u]Here's a list[/u][/url] of ongoing/complete fan translations, though. Speaking of Inganock, turns out I was a little off about the decision system. (Actually, I'm not even sure about which heroines are capturable anymore, which is actually a lot more intriguing than being able to tell right off the bat.) The first chapter alone slams you with plot twist after plot twist... now I see why people were saying good things about it. ~Dagger~

Just started [b]Sekien no Inganock[/b] by Liarsoft. It's the first eroge I've played that's in third person instead of first person, which is pretty neat. The decision system (what I've seen of it so far, anyway) is also innovative... instead of having you decide the character's actions in real time, the game switches to a different screen during certain scenes, where you can choose between hearing various characters' internal thoughts and learning more about the city they live in. Depending on which characters you choose and in what order, you start leaning more toward one route or another. ~Dagger~

My friends were unimpressed by that particular bit of casting. Can't say I feel positively about it, either, but I won't write him off just yet. I hope they get the rest of the Cullens right, though (especially Rosalie and Alice--for some reason I have a much stronger image of them than of the three men). ~Dagger~

Jeez, you guys aim high. I'd be inclined to go for something like... oh, I don't know, Renge's game/mechandise collection in Ouran. Or all the figures owned by the guys in Genshiken. Or Yomiko's room full of books in Read or Die. Speaking for myself, I'd get more use out of things like that than crazy martial arts skills or flashy guns. :p ~Dagger~

[quote name='Tombstone'][COLOR="Navy"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"] My favorite character out of the bunch is Kyuzo. The silent killing types are always a favorite for me. While I can't stand Kikuchiyo. He's not as annoying as other characters in other animes, (Shinji, Shippo, Naruto) but he's annoying enough to piss me off. I really don't know what Kambei saw in him. (Gotta watch it again, so don't tell me yet lol.) [/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE] Kikuchiyo is the best character by far in the live-action film. It's not like his personality is that different... the actor in Seven Samurai is really expressive & funny, though (he appears in practically every Kurosawa movie, in a wide range of roles). It might be partly because they made him a big hulking cyborg, but I agree that Kikuchiyo is just plain abrasive in the anime. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Deus ex Machina'][COLOR="DarkOrange"](BTW Dagger I want a detailed synopsys of how you enjoyed that crap, and then I want you to read my review of it when I'm done O_O_o_O *FULL OF HATE*)[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Not sure how much of a point there is to this, but whatever. It's a uniquely creepy magical girl series with splendid costume designs and the best execution of Megumi Kadonosono's character designs to date (Keiji Gotoh being the director must have helped). What I found most memorable was the atmosphere. The title Utakata (うた∽かた) means "a fragment of a song/poem," but it's also a reference to the word utakata (泡沫), which means something as transient as bubbles in water. The whole show is saturated with this bizarre, bittersweet premonition of loss that casts an unexpected gloom over the archetypal main duo (cheerful girl + stifled girl) and the pubescent fanservice. The mahou shoujo for male fans genre was not the place where I expected to find [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware][u]mono no aware[/u][/url] out in full force, to say the least. The isolated elements--plot, characters, whatever--are no more or less standard, unique, nonsensical, or a waste of time than in your average half-length series. It's the full package that becomes intriguing, because it hints at being more than the sum of its parts, but how that gets received very much depends (obviously) on the individual viewer. I'm not interested in defending Utakata to the death or anything. I just enjoyed it. Haven't thought about it in a while, but come to think of it, I might like to rewatch it. ~Dagger~

Ooh, hoping to see this over break. [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=359][u]Studio 4°C[/u][/url], which animated the film, is known for taking on arty projects. While not everything of theirs is movie quality in terms of production values, their stuff tends to be very different from the anime norm. Mind Game is their best-known work besides Tekkon Kinkreet (and the director of Mind Game also animated an absolutely wild-looking TV series called Kemonozume--I'd recommend it if you like this kind of thing). 100% agree with your comment about the issue with movies in general. I almost always find myself enjoying them more for the improved animation than anything else. ~Dagger~

I fell completely in love with Elfen Lied the first time I watched it, but cooled off upon repeat viewings. Nana remains one of my most beloved female characters ever, though. ~Dagger~

Thanks as always, but I'm not sure you should place quite so much faith in my endorsements. I liked Utakata. :p ~Dagger~

Not manga, but anime-related: currently reading [b]Seirei no Moribito[/b] (it's the first book in the series, and the only one covered by the anime of the same name; the second book is called Yami no Moribito). Because it's a children's novel, it's relatively clear & easy to follow despite the fantasy setting. So far it's exactly the same as the anime, but I hear that they get pretty different later on. For whatever it's worth, Arthur A. Levine Books (the Scholastic imprint that originally brought Harry Potter over from the UK) has the rights to release the Moribito series in English. There's no release date yet, but one of the editors who helped with HP mentioned it on her blog, which was exciting. ~Dagger~