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Tenchi Muyo! OVA - Episodes 1-5

A combination of boredom and me wanting to watch what I expected to be a high quality OVA (in terms of art and animation) lead me to unwrapping the box set that arrived today. I was pretty confident it would, at the very least, pass some time.

It didn't let me down. I found it to be more far-fetched and silly than I like anime, with every character being one-dimensional, but I had no issues sitting watching it for somewhere between 2-2.5 hours. It was funny in places - the scene where Tenchi's dad attempted to film his son lose his virginity making me laugh - and the lovely visuals (for its age) made it great to watch. It's perverse enough for a pervert to find it amusing and, depending on said perverts horny level, it had enough full-frontal (where's the hair/holy place!?) nudity to 'please' certain individuals in a different way. You gotta love how these type of series ALWAYS find a way to get females into hot springs so the boobs come out.

I don't have the motivation required to watch any more tonight but I'll *try* to get myself to watch the second disc tomorrow, and then the third disc on the day after that. I'm 99% I'll be unable to rate it higher than 8/10 due to how stupid it is and my need for realism, with 7.5/10 being the most likely score I'll give it at this point, but I'm still glad I spent the huge amount of £5.99 on it.

...oh, and in terms of the harem series I've watched/read...

Love Hina (manga) > Ah! My Goddess >>>>>>>>>>> Tenchi
 
Couple of episodes of Gunslinger Girl down... yeah, the really goddam cool bits are still really goddam cool. And the atmosphere is still there. Now, hopefully I can stay disciplined enough to actually follow through on this "watch old series" policy and not trample all over my monthly budget with new series that just end up at the bottom of the pile...
 
Slayers episode 1
Elemental Gelade episode 1
FLCL episode 1

I really enjoyed the first episodes of Slayers and Elemental Gelade and I'm looking forward to watching more ^^
 
King of Fighters: Another Day

Overall I would say it was good, the animation and fights were excellent. You can tell its Production I.G. The problem is its in 4 parts that are less than 10mins each (including credits), your just getting into it and it ends.

Parts 1 & 2 were ok but 3 & 4 I thought were really good.
 
MONONOKE said:
I really enjoyed the first episodes of Slayers and Elemental Gelade and I'm looking forward to watching more ^^
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Slayers is a great fantasy, non-sense comedy. I'm so looking forward for season 4 of it.
 
School Rumble vol 3

very funny, kinda reminds me of azumanga daioh with the short stories in each episode.
Now just got to wait on Revelation releasing the other 3 volumes to really enjoy this series.
 
Dirty Pair Flash

Finally finished this after putting it on hiatus for a few weeks. The story was a bit confusing at times but it was good overall. I found it funny and the action was decent. Pretty standard stuff.

At times it reminded me of Tenchi; Yuri = Ayeka and Kei = Ryoko, although it might of just been me. Another instance is the baby episode in the 2nd OVA series. Another thing I think I noticed was the show got progressively ecchi-er as it went on...
 
chaos said:
Just back from the Barbican where I've seen Dororo. I must buy the manga. Now! seriously, Tezuka is always amazing.
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I agree, you should buy it! :p The manga is brilliant. It's a lot of fun and the art is wonderful as always from Tezuka.
 
Sword of the Stranger - 9/10

What an awesome movie. I will rewatch this very soon.

Fullmetal Alchemist 13-14

This show still doesnt grip me. I just dont like the instant change from humour to seriousness.
I hope it gets better. I really do.

Edit// In FMA's odd humour; this is a great example of it.
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Seemed serious until he goes on about TIIIIIINY MINISKIRTS.

HOWEVER; I still laughed :lol:
 
Serial Experiments Lain - V3 and V4

Great series must have a high replay value. Third time watching Lain must mean something =)

That opening is amazing, the rest of the ost is good as well, character design is spot on, plot is one of the coolest in anime history.
 
Death Note: Episodes 1-8 (re-watched)

After seeing that Play had dropped volume 1 back down to £4.99, I couldn't resist ripping the seal off my copy and going on a mini-marathon. I'm currently slooooowly re-reading the manga, so I'm in 'Death Note mode' at the minute.

The anime was as amazing as ever. I just sat through all the episodes on the first two DVDs, also watching all the extras, and I never once felt like I was forcing myself to watch old material. The fact that I can re-read and re-watch Death Note again and again without feeling bored says a lot about the quality, especially when you consider how much dialogue Death Note has. It truly is an all time classic, one that should be talked about in 100's of years like The Count of Monte Cristo.

In order to make the experience a little different, I watched my DVDs with the American dub instead of watching it in Japanese. It has a very high quality dub, one of the most impressive dubs I've heard in fact. L's voice actor nails the role, keeping his voice emotionless yet not making the character come across as inhuman. Naomi Misora, a character who doesn't have much screen time but has a lot of fan love, also had a voice actress who was able to fit the sombre role to perfection. Nearly every other performance was also very good, Ryuk's voice actor being able to match the Japanese voice actor when it comes to creepy laughter.

...However, there was one problem with a performance, and it was one I expected would be an issue before watching - Light's voice actor. He didn't do a bad job but his voice just didn't seem fitting for the self proclaimed "God of the new world" known as Light Yagami. He sounded like no more than an above average American. And, like with the performance of JYB as Lelouch in Code Geass, Light's English voice actor was unable to change his voice from caring and kind to harsh and evil, instead keeping his voice at the same level throughout. I feel the character designer in one of the extras summed it up when he spoke of how hard it was for him to draw Light because there's "Black Light" and "White Light" in the manga. To be fair to the American voice actor, he never had much of a chance when Mamoru had already put in one of the best voice acting performances ever in the Japanese version.

The video quality is also fantastic. My TV isn't good enough for me to say the transfer is flawless but it certainly matches up to the DVD-rips I have sitting on my hard-drive. There were no obvious video issues at all, with even the subtitles matching up to the Japanese dialogue and not just being dubtitles.

As for the extras, I'm very impressed what Manga are selling for so cheap. There's an interview with the English voice actors of Light and L, as well as interviews with the director and character designer. There was also an insightful and amusing episode 7 commentary session where Naomi Misora's English voice actress spoke her mind and showed her colourful personality. The best of the bunch was the interview with the director and character designer - They both revealed that they were fans of the manga before working on the anime, and that explained why so much effort had been put in to being faithful to the source material AND making improvements where possible. It would've been nice if the extras had been longer but I'm not complaining when extras are so hard to find on anime DVDs.

I now find myself very tempted to spend £8.99 on volume 2, even though I already know every detail of the story. I think I'll wait until volume 3 drops to £8.99 and get them together so that I'll be able to marathon the first part of the Death Note story in one sitting. While I think many Death Note fans will be annoyed by Manga switching to single disc releases from volume 4 onwards, I strongly recommend volumes 1-3 and can find no real negative that would stop people buying them.
 
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