What Are You Watching?

[Avaitor]

And I got to watch Castle of Caligostro last night, which is such a good movie. It's true that there's less edge here than in other Lupin works, but Miyazaki's take on the characters is still laudable, and he's already crafted some of the coolest action sequences of his career here. The restoration is great, and makes me feel glad that I picked the Blu up. I'm definitely going to use this again soon.

I'm starting Part III tonight, and I think that I'll watch the first 2 episodes. It should be fun, even if it's inferior to the other series.

[Foggle]

I'm glad you liked Mamo! It's such a weird and creative film - some of the best Lupin material ever. Cagliostro is, of course, also a masterpiece, and that Discotek Blu-ray is the best it's ever looked. Definitely worth owning for any fan.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I checked out the first two episodes of Kiznaiver since I've been hearing this show get so much praise this season. Maybe I'm just too out of touch with the modern anime community (in fact I definitely am), but I just don't get the appeal of this show.

And please, nobody give me a long post explaining why it's great or what an idiot I am for not liking it. If you enjoy it then that's fantastic and you should continue doing so. I'm just saying that it really isn't my thing based on what I've seen so far. Maybe I'll give it another episode or two to see if it changes my mind, though.

[Avaitor]

I'm on episode 8 of Part III, and I am liking it so far. It doesn't feel all that different from Part II, aside from getting a little weirder, and the colors being a little brighter. Also, there's been more fanservice so far.

That's not really a bad thing, but this one is about Fujiko being confused for a witch, and almost burning at a stake. I haven't really expected an episode like this in a while, but it doesn't feel that far off. I feel like watching The Devils now, actually.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I checked out the first two episodes of Kiznaiver since I've been hearing this show get so much praise this season. Maybe I'm just too out of touch with the modern anime community (in fact I definitely am), but I just don't get the appeal of this show.

And please, nobody give me a long post explaining why it's great or what an idiot I am for not liking it. If you enjoy it then that's fantastic and you should continue doing so. I'm just saying that it really isn't my thing based on what I've seen so far. Maybe I'll give it another episode or two to see if it changes my mind, though.

It's okay. I only watch Kiznaiver to make fun of it.

[Avaitor]

Wow, I have about 10 episodes left of Maison Ikkoku. I think everything would turn out better for Godai if he would stop being so passive, and tell the rest of the apartment to back off more often, could get rid of Iubki quicker, and most importantly, tell Kyoko his feelings directly.

But it is fun to see how he can screw himself over so often.

[Avaitor]

Episode 18 of Part III has one of the sleekest fight scenes that I can recall in a while.

Good stuff.

[gunswordfist]

I watched the Puma, Twin Piques, Orion's Crown and Camilla vampire episode today. Twin Piques had a nice fight scene at the beginning but the rest of the episode was flat. The one about Orion's Crown dud too. The vampire episode was pretty boring outside of how funny Goemon quickly owning those vampires was. I like how Goemon was inconsolable this time Lupin faked his death in Puma/Lupin The Interred. He was barely moved in Part I. Id like to think that he cares more about Lupin over that time.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So Big Order started out as Future Diary, then became Jojo's, then turned into Code Geass, only to become End of Evangelion, and finally into Mahouka.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I started watching Yakitate!! Japan. This is one of those series that I had been meaning to check out and was on my backlog for literally years (since, like, 2007). Then I kind of just forgot about it for a while. When I was searching through Crunchyroll to see any random anime that caught my interest, this one came up and I thought: "Hey, why the hell not?"

I'm only two episodes in, but this is definitely my kind of series. As you might imagine, it has that same kind of feel that you would get from something like Food Wars!, except as you can guess from the title the show focuses specifically on bread and baking rather than all foods in general. Granted, while I expected the whole Pantasia selection competition to be a sizable first story arc, the story took a surprising turn (in a good way) and pretty much sped things up to the final exam, so I'll be interested to see where the series goes after that part is done.

[Avaitor]

I finished Maison Ikkoku last night, and just watched The Final Chapter. For all of my grievances towards how their relationship kept on being pushed around, I was really happy to see Godai finally propose, and for Kyoko to say yes. Just about the only thing that I wasn't very happy about in its ending is how Yagami is still in love with Godai, even after the fact. But what are you gonna do? And The Final Chapter was a nice extra piece to the story, which I'm glad that I decided to watch. It's a very nice series overall, and I'm glad that I gave it a go. I definitely admire Takahashi more than I did before.

Next up, Ushio & Tora. I think that I might have time for the first episode before work tonight, in fact.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ushio and Tora is pretty fun from the start, but it's true value as a series may not be initially apparent at first. It starts out in an episodic fashion and is initially a villain-of-the-week style series until about a third of the way into its run, in which everything starts coming together and it becomes focused under a single narrative thread.

I kind of like to compare this series to Gargoyles in a way. While both shows are very different in overall tone and approach, they share some key similarities like a rift between humans and mythical creatures (except this series has very Eastern-style beasts as opposed to European-influenced designs, obviously), and they both have a rich lore and mythology that ends up playing a big part in the overall story later on. Tora, much like Goliath, is a centuries old character who has been burned by humans in the past, and has to slowly regain his trust of them as he spends time with Ushio and his friends. It's just something that really helped me get invested in the series early on, but it's still its own thing. Both series currently rank among my favorite animated shows of all time, though, of course.

I really love the main villain too. Final boss style big-bads who are supposedly all-powerful (like Darkseid or Apocalypse) really aren't my thing most of the time, but what makes Hakumen no Mono work for me as a character is that his hatred for humanity clearly comes from an envy of them, so the way that he thinks and operates is both interesting and nuanced, and I also really just love the voice-acting used to portray that character. Megumi Hayashibara did a spectacular job portraying him.

[Avaitor]

The first episode reminds me of Tenchi Muyo so far. Not so much the tone (but the sense of humor isn't that far removed), but they both start off with a boy finding a strange creature in a hidden space.

It's not bad at all so far, but I don't think that I'll have time for more episodes today.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Ushio & Tora hits its stride at episode 7. The episodes before it are really good, but that's the one that hints at its true potential. Before that, it's all about the chemistry between the two.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Season 2 of Food Wars will be 13 episodes long.

I'm going to guess it'll be a split cour.