Lord El Melloi Case Files ep 0, 1-2
I'd been sort of interested in this one for a while now, but never seemed to get around to actually watching it. It's certainly a change of pace from what you'd normally associate with the Fate franchise, but of these three episodes, only episode 2 gives much indication of (presumably) what the rest is like and, thus far, I've not had any strong feelings about the show one way or the other. In particular, I just don't find Waiver an especially engaging protagonist. I know a lot of folk seemed to like it more once it got into the titular Rail Zepplin storyline, so I'll give it a couple more episodes out of curiosity at least.
Video Girl Ai ep1-6 (rewatch)
Took the chance to revisit this late-80s WSJ romcom with some friends the other night, so it didn't quite have my full attention, but I think it still holds up well. If you don't mind the occasional smutty joke and some casual nudity, it's actually a rather sweet little story that plays its paper-thin premise (magical idol girl climbs out of the TV to comfort a lovelorn boy) to the absolute hilt, aided by a great early turn for Megumi Hayashibara in the lead role. The heavy reliance on video-cassette technology does date it, but with its pastel-hued vision of a modernist, utopian Tokyo that seems only to exist in movies and fashion catalogues, it seems more like a period fantasy now, than anything intended to resemble reality.
I also think it ends at exactly the right point. The manga continued on for quite a while after the anime stops, but in its 6 episodes, the anime resolves enough that you can treat it as a nice, compact little show that doesn't drag on into apathy. Without wanting to spoil anything, it really goes some places in the last episode too...
