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Mobile Suit Gundam movies 2 & 3

While I enjoyed the first movie, at times the second was difficult to sit through. Of all three, this one seemed to suffer most from the transition from TV series to condensed movie, and I can understand what Aion meant about the lack of character development. We just don't see enough of the White Base crew outside of battle, and that makes it difficult to care about the outcome of those battles. The third movie is definitely my favourite, with a much better balance between action, politics, and character development, and there's some genuinely tense moments towards the end. The scale of destruction in the final battle was immense.

Character issues aside, what impressed me about the trilogy was the brutal portrayal of war: there's no heroism, no glory, and no winners. For a show about giant robots beating the **** out of each other, the tone is surprisingly mature, the teeny melodrama kept to an absolute minimum. Finally, there's a distinct lack of the pandering that I detect from the newer Gundam series, with their casts of improbably attractive boys and girls. In contrast, most of the characters in these films are average looking at best.

It's not perfect but the original Gundam movie trilogy did enough to convince me that I need to watch Zeta.
 
I'm on volume VI of Wolf's Rain - what a great anime. I've just recently watched Witch Hunter and Wolf's Rain, I've also seen haruhi earlier this year, so I must say. Beez is expensive, that's true, but their shows are really worth it.
 
Today I watched the entire series of FLCL, and then watched some more Full Metal Panic! which brings me to episode 20. I also watched episode 1 of Cowboy Bebop, which I really like so far and I will make a comment later on during in the series.
 
Just finished Full Metal Panic! I liked it. It was fun, and had lots of genre's in it. It was a little dragged on past episode 12 though, I think I might of enjoyed it more if it stopped at episode 13. There was alot of filler, and the ending felt a drag to watch. The characters were good; Although, I hated Chidori and Tessa. There was also alot of needless chat between them. Anyway, the series was enjoyable, so I've given it a 8/10.
 
Watched Magical Shopping arcade Abenobashi and I got to say that Gainax made one of the series with the most pop culture / anime references I can remember. Star wars, indiana jones, Back to the future, Robocop an so many other references that made this series so delicious to watch with the vid notes.

Wait there is still Excel Saga, but most references in that were anime (if not all).
 
Just finished Air and this series ending left me a bit depressed. The OVA's fixed that though and I'll watch the movie tomorrow.
It's been a busy weekend for me and my anime collection.
 
Negima! - 7-14 (Vol. 2-3)

As an adaptation of the manga, Negima is actually very good. In the first 14 episodes the anime followed the manga very closely, the only mahor differences being the pointless rearrangement of the early stories and some filler added to allow the stories to fill 20 minute episodes. I don't think a fan of the manga would think badly of the show.

The problem is that the source material the anime has to use isn't exactly high class material, with most of the chapters involving a ten year old getting molested by 14 year old girls who all seem hungy for young lovin'. And, even if you ignore the weakness of the story, the other problem is that it's impossible to give all 31 girls (plus Negi and the other teachers) a semi-decent amount of time when there are only 26 episodes. It's a bit impossible when even Mr. Akamatsu is still trying to get readers to remember the names and introduce some of the girls halfway through volume 4!

Where as I rate the manga somewhere between 7-8/10 purely for entertainment, I rate the anime between 6-7/10 because a fair amount of the mostly pointless chatter had to be cut for time reasons, and those cuts made it even more difficult to get to know the silly amount of characters. The sign of a good anime is when the episodes go by fast, and the 20 minutes each episode of Negima took seemed to drag a little.
 
Just finished Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch. And, WOAH! That series.. was awesome! I finished the entire series in less than 4 days. It was incredible. I'll probably start the next series in a few days! :D
 
Watched 3 episodes of Bleach since I was behind, getting pretty good at the moment. Next one looks even better.

Also watched the first 5 episodes of Zone of the Enders. I swear I had watched this series before but I must be getting it confused with something esle. Anyway, it's pretty good. Will be watching it all in the next few days since I have nothing to do until Christmas.
 
The Girl Who Lept Through Time - It was a good watch, too bad the plot didn't get anywhere though.

Casshern Sins 11 - Was amazing.

Michiko to Hatchin 8&9 - Lol @ the black guys in episode 8, episodes were decent but nothing that had me loving it.

Crest of the Stars 4-8 - Pretty good, not a lot happens but still good to watch.
 
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni eps 21-26 Completed! Sucks that i'm not going to get a chance to watch the second season till new year probably, still confused as to what is actually going on :(

Gaiking Legend of Daiku Maryu eps 9-10
 
Toward the Terra 1-4

Sci-fi anime about a futuristic totalitarian society in which supercomputers are used to indentify and destroy "Mu", a race of people born with telepathic powers. The young protagonist is, of course, one of these people, and in these four episodes his powers are awakened, alerting the authorities and prompting a rescue by fellow Mu, whose ultimate aim is to return to their homeland (hence the title). Very good so far.
 
Kannazuki no Miko - 2-8 (also rewatched EP1)

If there's proof needed that a combination of a love triangle, lesbians, a girl-on-girl rape scene and two brothers fighting to the death can save an anime, Kannazuki is it.

The story is, in all honesty, an awful "save the world from a bizarre group of baddies, including a prepubescent catgirl/nurse and a young female pop star (Wild Arms 4's baddies are soundly beaten)" one. Power Ranger style mechas appear out of nowhere to do battle, with no explanation provided about where they came from, and a fight to save the word from a reviving snake God must be fought because a shrine on the moon was somehow destroyed...yeah, I don't get it either. But I'm able to overlook ALL the faults and enjoy the love triangle aspect of the story because the retarded section of the story is only a means to an end - the most important part of Kannazuki is the main two characters and their borderline lesbian relationship. I simply view the save the world stuff as mindless entertainment, so it hasn't distracted me from getting into the well developed romance.

Kannazuki isn't a fan service show...or at least it isn't as bad as others in that respect. You'd think it would be with a story about lesbians but, aside from a few shots of the characters in underwear and the odd bathing scene, there hasn't been any. As a result of the lack of fan service, I've been able to view the series as non-pornographic entertainment, saving my unholy thoughts until after I was back on my PC and with access to a doujin I thought was completely made up until I'd watched episode 8. What I'm trying to say is that, although it's VERY appealing to people with an interest in a pair of 16 year old lesbians, it's aimed more at fans of romantic stories mixed with anime insanity - it isn't aimed at the Battle Vixens crowd.

I'll watch the final volume later on today. I'm not sure if I'll have time after having a shower and cleaning myself up ready to go to the worst place in existence.

I also watched Shana 1-3 the other day. The first episode was great but the ones that followed seem to suggest it's going to be the usual "school kids must fight against the forces of evil" stuff, and that isn't very appealing. I'm sure it'll make for good entertainment since it looks like it was well made, however I can't see it breaking into my top 10. Now, if it had a pair of lesbian school girls that'd be a different story (straight 10/10), but...
 
Since I'm trying to get back into the swing of watching more anime;

Mushishi ep.17 - More brilliance. I could probably watch this if it had no story, just admiring the art. Oh speaking of that...

Iblard Jikan - Really lovely Ghibli short film. It's just really 30 minutes of showcasing their artistic talent. Scanning over wonderful fantasy and realistic landscapes and city-scapes with minimal animation throughout and some calming music to top it off. No story, dialogue or action. One for the art lovers. Because the art is spectacular.

Eve No Jikan ep.3 - Though this felt slighly more disjointed? and less flowing than the previous episodes it still has me captivated. Great story. Fantastic art. Looking forward to more.

One Piece ep.149-151 - Really need to watch more One Piece. It's pretty darn awesome.
 
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