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Ranma 1/2 - Episodes 6 - 18 (Blu-ray)

Ranma 1/2 hasn't lost any of its charm in the decade since I last saw it, it's still consistently funny and the care that goes into the way Ranma and Akane's relationship develops is beautiful. Plus with the episodes now playing in canonical order, the plot in the second half of this season does make more sense now.

Big Wars


I never watched this back in the 2000's as I was rather dismissive of it due to it's non-descript 70's sci-fi novel DVD artwork and the generally bad comments I read about it online at the time. But I felt I needed to watch it and I'm gutted I waited so long, it's a solid sci-fi war story, has some fantastic mechanical design and animation plus it steals all of it's sound effects from 80's Hollywood blockbusters. I really enjoyed it.

AMAIM: Warrior on the Borderline - Episode 7

Sakugan - Episode 7
 
Plastic Little: Very good story and a fair amount of character development for a 45 minute film. I must add that it also has the best drawn breasts I have seen in anime. :) Someone put a lot of effort into lovingly crafting those short scenes.

Black Magic M-66: Very Terminator-esque tale of a pair of humanoid killing robots lost on a test run, accidentally loaded with a mission to kill the inventor's grand-daughter. Good action but I thought the end was way over the top (a bit like Terminator, what with surviving a number of killing points).

Louie the Rune Soldier 1-12: Good humour and an entertaining storyline from this classic anime, but the central character does grate after a while. It is obvious he has been over indulged by his foster parents (head of the magic academy and high priestess of the battle god) and only starts to think once he's tried all the dumb options. Either he'll get better by the end or the girls will bury him to his neck in the desert.
 
SAKUGAN eps 6 & 7
Justice & fever dream.

Mieruko-chan ep 8
Shopping and changes at school.

My Senpai is Annoying ep 7
School memories.

Cowboy Bebop (live action) ep 1
S'alright, maybe skewed a bit too serious from my memory of the original, although it's been quite a few years since I watched it (I searched this thread and I haven't noted it before, so over 4 and a half years at least) and though it is one of a handful of shows I've watched more than once the other time was nearly 10 years before that!
Faye definitely steals it from the boys in the banter department.
 
Komi Can’t Communicate ep4

Lupin III: Part VI ep6

Still not great, but I’ll give them credit for the ending - the two-parter was an interesting idea, even if it didn’t work that well in practice. I thought it was going to be a callback to Mamo the time-traveller from Part I.
 
Finished Victorian Romance Emma (dubbed) - really great series with a lot of effort put into the dub, and

I’m so relieved that Emma and William ended up together! I seriously thought they might not! Though tbf Hans was a perfectly decent guy too so it's not like I would have been devastated if Emma had fallen in love with him and found happiness with him instead.

I've watched a bit of other stuff recently but rn I'm reading manga more so I might just say what I've watched when I complete a series :)

Sakura Trick (subbed) Episodes 1-5 - this series is so cute so much kissing and adorableness OMG! 🥰

Dai-Guard (dubbed, rewatch) Episodes 1-2 - This has one of the best English dubs I've heard and is a great comedy, would def recommend people check it out if they haven't - I had the UK DVD singles and recently bought the UK complete series DVD boxset to save a bit of shelf space so as long as all the discs in this set work I might be selling off the singles for very cheap at some point if anyone is interested (I say "might" as I may just end up taking them to a charity shop) :)

Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba (subbed, mostly a rewatch) Episodes 1-4 - I have seen most of Season 1 before except for the final four episodes of it, I tried watching it dubbed when I got the UK Collector's BD sets but while the dub is not bad, I rather prefer the sub in this case, so I have decided to rewatch the entire first season subbed, and based on that I will decide whether to keep or sell my season 1 sets, and whether to watch the movie and season 2. So far I am really enjoying this rewatch though, and I will also note that the picture quality for this release is excellent and I am very glad that they were able to use the superior Aniplex of America transfer :)

Amanchu Episodes 1-10 (subbed, partial rewatch) - I tried watching this before months ago and didn't really pay enough attention to it so I started over, and it was def worth it, it's a wonderful series and I love how it combines the talents of Junichi Sato and Kenichi Kasai to create an endlessly magical hybrid of everything each of the two does best, you can clearly see that it's by the same mangaka and director as Aria but you can also feel the Honey and Clover/Nodame Cantabile-style vibes :)
 
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Louie the Rune soldier episodes 13-24: Well, by the end of the series everyone had learned a life lesson and matured a little bit ... apart from Louie, who end the series as he started, by punching his way to victory. I can only assume the Gods prefer dumb perseverance and brute force to logic and reason. Still, I did enjoy it. :)
 
Cowboy Bebop (live action) ep 2

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero s3 eps 7 & 8
Sacrifice and misery! Here endeth the history lesson.

RUMBLE GARANNDOLL ep 7
Shall we play a game?

takt op.Destiny ep 8
Acceptance.

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated ep 15
Stuck with you.
 
takt op.Destiny episode 8 Relieved.

Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water (Rewatch) episodes 35-39 (Complete. It was nice to revisit this series though I wish there weren’t so many episodes that do nothing for the story. That said, this is a solid anime to watch if you haven’t already!) 4/5

Naruto Spin-Off: Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals
episodes 1-10
 
Ping-Pong the Animation eps 9-11 (complete)

Cowboy Bebop (live action) eps 3 & 4
Yay, Faye's back in ep 4 which made it much better and 3 was a bit better than 2.

And from live action take on a classic anime sci-fi to an anime take on a classic live action sci-fi (both involving Shinichirō Watanabe!)

Blade Runner: Black Lotus ep 1
Everything is pretty cool about this except the how the characters look. As in the art of their look, the actual designs are good and movement has been mo-capped, but they look like early PS3 cutscene models! So all shiny and smooth. If only they could get it up to even mid PS4 levels, as it is there's a massive uncanny valley, especially as all the backgrounds look quite realistic.

Pride of Orange ep 8
Final countdown to the first competitive match.

Also watched the first 2 episodes of Hawkeye. Seems it'll be quite fun, if not quite up to Wander and Loki standards.
 
Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside episode 8 Choices.

The Heike Story episode 11 In too deep. (Complete. A solid historical anime epic with a decently engaging storyline and characters.) 3.5/5

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat
episode 8 Results of training.

Naruto Spin-Off: Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals episodes 11-25
 
Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside (English Dub) Episode 6

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S (English Dub) Episode 12 (Complete)

Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Episode 8

The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made Episode 8

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat Episode 8
 
Cowboy Bebop (live-action) ep1

As a first reaction, I think 'inoffensive' would be the main word here. John Cho and Mustafa Shakir bounce off each other well and the show does okay when it's not slavishly trying to imitate the anime (which it appears to be doing a lot). Unfortunately, the production often feels a bit like a cable TV sci-fi show from the 2000s, with the effects flip flopping between really quite nice and 'did your mum make this for you'. John Cho's apparent lack of fight experience also bites rather hard - if they had cast a martial artist as Spike, it would have helped a lot.
 
Cowboy Bebop (live action) eps 5 & 6
Jet and Spike's pasts catch up to them in different ways. And Faye has some fun!

John Cho's apparent lack of fight experience also bites rather hard - if they had cast a martial artist as Spike, it would have helped a lot.
Yeah, you can tell the choreography is really slow to make account for that and his age. Having recently watched Shang-Chi Simu Liu would have been a good choice. Had good banter and excellent fighting skills. He's also nearly 20 years younger and a little taller.

86 s2 eps 6 & 7
Suicidal plan.

Blade Runner: Black Lotus eps 2 & 3
What is my truth?
This is bit like watching a machinima of Lara Croft circa Underworld (2008)/Yakuza 3 (2009) (that's what the design of the main female and the male MC look like) in the Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4 edition 2020) world. The walk cycles look good because of the mo-cap, but there's a little stutter between the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.
 
Recent shows that I probably won't finish.

Mieruko-chan ep.1 - I thought this was meant to be a comedy, but it's just creepy and depressing, and the leering camera angles chosen for the fan service shots might be creepier than the ghosts. Dropped.

My Senpai is Annoying ep.1-6 - Decent so far, but nothing special. The main characters are quite enteraining, but most of the others are bland, except the awesome grandpa. Still watching.

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut ep.1 - What's the point of having a 'vampire' in this if she doesn't have any vampiric traits? It's clearly just being used as a thinly-veiled allegory for racism, so I don't see why they bothered painting it as a pseudo-fantasy element at all. On hold.

The Vampire Dies in No Time ep.1 - Oh dear, this show only seems to have one joke, and it wasn't funnny the first time (never mind the tenth). Dropped.

Drug Store in Another World ep.1-5 - Mediocre on all fronts. Dropped.

The Fruit of Evolution ep.1 - Abysmal junk that's just setting up yet another overpowered isekai protagonist. Dropped.
 
SAKUGAN episode 8 Debt.

The Aquatope on White Sand episode 21 Reach the beach.

Naruto Spin-Off: Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals episodes 26-40
 
Gosenzosama Banbanzai ep3

A little of this goes a long way, but I think this was the most engaging instalment so far. The show seems to be flexing its satirical muscles a lot more visibly and, while it‘s very much a snapshot of 1989, I think the plight of the younger generation struggling to repeat the success of their baby-boom parents still resonates even now. You can certainly get the measure of what would define Oshii’s style going forwards, with pseudo-factual lectures and strong emphasis on the monologue, even if here they’re played more for comic effect than usual.
 
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