What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watch the next two. Trust me on this.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just watched episode 2, which cleared a bit more stuff up.

That said, I don't get why Homura has to be so damn cryptic to Madoka, though. Whenever stern, serious, and mostly silent characters like that are cryptic to the main character in their warnings, then no fucking shit does it foreshadow bad things are going to happen.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

OK, That damn cat thing (Kyubey) is WAY too fucking suspicious. I'm calling right now that it can't be trusted. I mean damn that thing is really pushy in trying to contract Madoka.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finished episode 3, and I have to say that while I was expecting one of the 2 magical girls to die, for some reason I was actually expecting that Homura would get screwed over instead of what's her face (I can't remember her name, honestly), so the show definitely pulled one over on me there. I'd probably be more shocked by that scene if I wasn't already desensitized to gruesome death scenes in deceptively cutesy shows (courtesy of HXH, for better or worse).

OK, So now I admit that I'm interested to see more of this series.

[Rynnec]

I finished episode 3, and I have to say that while I was expecting one of the 2 magical girls to die, for some reason I was actually expecting that Homura would get screwed over instead of what's her face (I can't remember her name, honestly), so the show definitely pulled one over on me there. I'd probably be more shocked by that scene if I wasn't already desensitized to gruesome death scenes in deceptively cutesy shows (courtesy of HXH, for better or worse).

The blonde-haired girl's name is  Mami.

Homura's the dark-haired mysteroious type, while Mami is the slightly-older mentor type. And as everyone knows, the mentor characters always die first over the mysterious fangirl/boy-baitey ones. XD

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I suppose that makes sense, but when I think of the older mentor type, I think of someone genuinely wise who's heart is truly in the right place. I know that Madoka and Sayaka bought the whole bit about her being a selfless heroine until the very end, but as the viewer we could see clearly well that Mami was playing them into her hand to get them to contract with Kyubey. In the end she had her own motives as well. I figured that she'd stay around a bit longer to use Madoka and Sayaka to her own advantage in some way and then turn on them later. I think that the writers of this show intentionally lead you to believe that the show was going in that direction to surprise you with Mami just being abruptly killed off in the 3rd episode.

At any rate, I went into this show expecting that all of the starting characters are going to die by the end, and I still expect that. The morale of the show so far seems to be about the cost of making bad decisions that are essentially too good to be true. That's at least the vibe that I've gotten from it, so far.

[Lord Dalek]

Rule #1 of Madoka. DO NOT TALK ABOUT MADOKA UNTIL AFTER YOU FINISHED IT.  The reason will become obvious later.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I completed Madoka Magica. You know, the more I think about the ending the more certain things don't make sense to me. For instance, being that Madoka essentially erased the existence of witches across all of time and space entirely, how exactly does Sayaka meet her end in the new reality? She could have never turned into a witch and it was said by Kyubey in the new reality that magical girls simply just have their soul gems disappear when they die, and don't turn into anything whatsoever. Well, I'm sure that some nerd who has studied the hell out of this show more than I would care to could explain all of it better, but I don't really care to listen to all of the specific details, to be honest.

As for the show as a whole, it was good. I found it interesting and entertaining. I don't know that I consider it to be one of the absolute greatest anime ever like a lot of people seem to feel, maybe because these kinds of stories aren't really up my alley to begin with, but that said it says a lot that this still appealed enough to me that I enjoyed it, so I'd say its a show that earned its popularity and high ratings. I just don't like it enough to consider it a personal favorite, but I'd definitely recommend it to others and its easily one of the best anime I've seen out of what's been released in the past few years.

Rule #1 of Madoka. DO NOT TALK ABOUT MADOKA UNTIL AFTER YOU FINISHED IT.  The reason will become obvious later.

Well, I finished it and I still don't get this rule of yours. You can express your opinion of a show as you watch it the first time through, even before you finish it.

[Grave]

Honestly, I'm not really into anime these days since they don't come out with anything new for me, so for the time being I've been catching up on shows that I've started, but never got the chance to finish. With that said Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is something that I started watching on adult swim, but for whatever reason that I don't remember I stopped watching it on tv. Now that I have it on dvd (packaging is terrible) I've continued where I left off with this masterpiece. I have to say that I'm a big fan of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and I can see a lot of it here in Moribito. I don't know what it is, but the conversations really suck me in, and then the animation itself is really a site to see. Fights, I love it.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

If only Beat was here to go full autistic on such positive praise for the show.

[Grave]

Ah, yes. I remember Beat's stance on Moribito. Truth be told I had no issues with what he was saying about it either, but it's not like we share the same taste in anime either. If I'm not mistaken he wanted shows like Witchblade, Panty and Stocking, or something off the wall with fanservice on adult swim, and I hate stuff like that.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Evangelion and Paranoia Agent. At the same time.

Not seeing why Shinji gets so much hate. Not only is he not annoying, I actually find him decently likeable at times.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Not seeing why Shinji gets so much hate. Not only is he not annoying, I actually find him decently likeable at times.

I agree. I still have no idea why people hate on him so much. I've heard complaints about him acting too depressed or cowardly most of the time. I don't know what the people who say that were watching, but it certainly wasn't the same thing that I was watching. He is scared to pilot the Eva maybe the first 2 or 3 times he has to step into the thing, and who can blame him? Its a completely normal reaction for a kid who has lived a completely normal life up until that point to be forced into life or death battles with the whole city at stake. That kind of puts a lot of pressure on a person, I would think. After that, he pretty much has no problem getting into the Eva and going into fights as he gets used to it, which is for a majority of the series, so that complaint about him acting like a coward makes no sense. As for the depression thing, he has his moments where he's down obviously, mainly when he has a lot of pressure put onto him by his father or he feels completely antagonized by everyone else....which IDK about everyone else, but once again, that actually makes sense for a person to be down for those reasons. Other than that, he acts completely normal and is even pretty cheerful for a good portion of the series.

For comparison, I've seen quite a number of characters in FMA (both versions) break down and cry more times than I have seen Shinji have, yet none of those characters ever get any heat for it. That's just an example. The point is that I've seen plenty of other anime characters from other series act way more emotionally unstable than Shinji (who seems pretty normal on a mental level to me), yet somehow Shinji gets labeled as the "emo kid." Go figure.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Finished Evangelion and Paranoia Agent. NGE was enjoyable, even if I'm not terribly found of the last two episodes, but I can defiantly see why it ranks so high on many lists. Paranoia Agent was interesting, if a little hard to follow at times, but I'm a fan of odd visuals so I'm glad I watched it. Both great series, though I don't know if I like them enough to buy the DVDs.

Now enacting Phase 2 of Operation: W.A.S.O.A (Watch A Shit-ton Of Anime) by watching Outlaw Star, Kids on the Slope, and GIT: SAC.

[Grave]

Still watching Moribito for now, but Sengoku Basara arrived yesterday so I'll be giving that a whirl soon enough.