Your anime viewing journal

Dracos said:
Dragonauts Part 1. I really found myself enjoying this show more than I expected. The story is okay but probably not going to win any awards coasting along as it does. The characters all seem to have a their own personalities and reasons for being, also they manage to not all be one dimensional. The things that bring it down for me though are the overly obvious CGI of the dragons, and the bizarre boobage of several well (overly) endowed female characters.
Click to expand...

I think that is the most positive review of this show I have ever read! I had been planning to buy it anyway as I tend to enjoy things most people run a mile from (and the character designs are lovely) so I'm glad to hear you found some good points in there too. I'll set my expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised too.

R
 
Rui said:
Dracos said:
Dragonauts Part 1. I really found myself enjoying this show more than I expected. The story is okay but probably not going to win any awards coasting along as it does. The characters all seem to have a their own personalities and reasons for being, also they manage to not all be one dimensional. The things that bring it down for me though are the overly obvious CGI of the dragons, and the bizarre boobage of several well (overly) endowed female characters.
Click to expand...

I think that is the most positive review of this show I have ever read! I had been planning to buy it anyway as I tend to enjoy things most people run a mile from (and the character designs are lovely) so I'm glad to hear you found some good points in there too. I'll set my expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised too.

R
Click to expand...

Story wise it is nothing new, but it is being done reasonably well so far not too rushed with no filler so to speak. I just hope they don't decide to rush the end or try and drag it out too far. Even the hot springs episode is part of the story with the dragonauts trying to capture the main characters as they happen to turn up at the same time, admittedly it is at first treated in a more comical way. As I said the dragon CGI lets it down visually for me as it dose not mesh with the rest of the quite decent animation. The breasts on a couple of the characters are over the top, but there is some sort of realism to them as well, bulging in an almost realistic way when confined by slightly ill fitting clothing.
 
Kiss x Sis 1-3

A wise man* once said, "If you're going to do fanservice, do it properly". Kiss x Sis, an OVA series based on a manga by Mahoromatic's fanservice fiend Bow Ditama, does it properly. Although it is amusing that despite the astonishingly racy content, the animators steadfastly refuse to show nipples. Middle school girls groping their stepbrother's erection through his clothes = fine; bare breasts = just too much.

There isn't much story to speak of, but I'll have a go. Cute twins Ako and Rika are both in love with their stepbrother Keita, and they're not afraid to show it. Keita is mildly put out by the attention he receives, and even expresses some doubts over whether the feelings they have, and those that he is developing, are really okay. But that's about as deep as the show goes with moral issues, since, rather amusingly, Keita's father and the girls' mother think it's wonderful.

What little plot there is simply facilitates one racy scenario after another; the entire third episode, for example, takes place in a karaoke booth. Add some mistakenly purchased alcohol and weak bladders and you have twenty minutes of anime that are so very, very wrong I can't help but love every one of them with all my tainted soul.


*yeah, okay, it was me
 
You see, for me, Kiss x Sis has that classic problem - it isn't actually quite racy enough (although, tbf, having snuck a look at the most recent chapters I think it is getting there in the manga since they've completely given up on Keita's resistance and have brought a more attractive female character in) most of the time, when that's all it has going for it.

Character development is nil, humor is fairly limited most of the time (although it has its funny moments) - in fact, I would say that I have actually read more explicit adult manga series with better characters or funnier humor.

There are probably three truly "interesting" scenes in the entire four year run (the karaoke box, the threesome practice, and a recent one with a new character), and nothing of interest in the interim. That's not enough when you have such a well-worn set-up to go on.

More of the parents would be good, because as you say their attitude towards it all is amusing, and more psychological trauma for Keita would be good.

It's possible that these OVAs benefit a lot from being able to condense it all down to a short run-time, though, so I might check them out.
 
Not racy enough? Blimey O'Reilly!

Perhaps it's a matter of perspective. It's certainly not as explicit as other seinen manga like Sundome or Dance Till Tomorrow, but I don't view it as being in the same category as those. There's a kind of innocence and simplicity about it that makes it seem very raunchy.

And I think it probably does benefit from being pared down. The first episode is a little dull but the second and third are pretty much wall-to-wall fanservice, and that's just about enough for me to overlook the non-existent plot and utterly stock characters. There's a TV series on the way, but unless it's able to consistently deliver on the fanservice, I can't see myself being too interested.
 
Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve) - Completed in one sitting last night. Very very good!
Basilisk - Watched episodes 4-14. It's ok, quite easy to watch.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Couldn't sleep last night so my favourite Ghibli movie came to the rescue. ^^
 
Watched last night and the night previous:

Macross Frontier 1-3 - Watching this in Blu-Ray is jaw droppingly Gorgeous, there is no doubt about it. Decided that the best way to re-watch it is in blu-ray...thoughi say rewatch, i got to episode 11 last time before my laptop died and lost everything, so hopefully this time i'll have the luck to watch it all the way through.
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun 8 - finally, after the previous two episodes, you can see the cogs moving and some larger story taking shape, albeit only in the starting stages. The wee snippet after the credits certainly makes the next episode more interesting, and linked with the other bit detailed in the episode, i look forward to watching 9.
Fairy Tail 6 - Series has been getting better the past two or so episodes, after they improved the animation at episode 5, it seems to have gotten better. However, stop with the casting animations as it does destroy the series a bit, and the darker tones you see in the manga aren't half as evident now.

@Dracos: In regards to Dragonaut, i watched roughly 6 episodes of it when it first aired and i thought it was rather mediocre overall. Not bad, but just not that good. Does it actually improve past that or would you say it keeps to being mediocre?
 
Arbalest said:
@Dracos: In regards to Dragonaut, i watched roughly 6 episodes of it when it first aired and i thought it was rather mediocre overall. Not bad, but just not that good. Does it actually improve past that or would you say it keeps to being mediocre?
Click to expand...

If you found the first 6 episodes mediocre you opinion wont change on the episodes I have seen as it coasts along. At the moment it is not bad and as I said I have found it more entertaining than I had expected, but then dragons are my thing.

I watched the first couple of discs of Mars Daybreak it is pretty good so far and submarine pirates on Mars is different from what I had expected it to be. As it is not a show that has been discussed to any length I had no real preconception as to what it was going to be.
 
The Girl who Leapt through Time- rewatched.

A pleasing film, certainly. Not one which excels or amazes, but well structured and modestly engaging nonetheless.

At present, Summer Wars doesn't sound much to my tastes however. It is too early for me to tell whether I'm inclined to Mamoru Hosoda's work in general.
 
Mars Daybreak. Quite a fun show and what better than pirates to go on a treasure hunt. Also has some reasonable political drama.

Bleach Volumes 21 and 22. I am starting to get bored with the Bount arc now.

Naruto Box Set 16. Some interesting bits between the filler. I am glad though that it is coming to an end and a new beginning with Shippuden. The thing that annoys me most is that some of the characters have some pretty powerful techniques and summoning abilities but they seem to forget all about them when they would be most useful.
 
Zin5ki said:
The Girl who Leapt through Time- rewatched.

A pleasing film, certainly. Not one which excels or amazes, but well structured and modestly engaging nonetheless.

At present, Summer Wars doesn't sound much to my tastes however. It is too early for me to tell whether I'm inclined to Mamoru Hosoda's work in general.
Click to expand...
You should definitely give Summer Wars a try Zin5ki. The general consensus when chaos, ilmaestro and I watched it was that it was an improvement on TGWLTT. One of the best new anime feature films I've seen in a long time. Requires some suspension of disbelief WRT how well connected and influential the family which is the focus of the story are (how easily they can obtain things such as supercomputers, satellite broadcasting equipment and uh, ships) but for me these somewhat over the top events, when grounded in an otherwise realistic setting, added to it's charm.
 
Shingetsutan Tsukihime Completed over the course of the last few nights. Very easy anime to watch so didn't take much to sit down and watch it all. Has to be watched in sub however as English Dub is rather painfull. Good ova though.

School Days Episodes 1-2. Voddas is in the mood for some Harem. Don't know why, I just do. Heh. Only seen the first two episodes and can see how it's gonna play out, but it's still fun. =)

Also added Summer Wars to my list to watch at some point. Thanks for the indirect suggestion ayase.
 
Back
Top