Ga-Rei Zero, Finished

When the fall season first started, I was hesitant about watching this show. From what I had seen, it was to be a mindless/shallow action show against demons, and the main characters were all wearing orange jumpsuits. It just didn’t look like the kind of show I would get into at the time. Well, I eventually talked myself into watching the first episode, and at first it looked like I was right. We were given a main who lost a loved one to an evil shota with glowing blue butterflies. They introduced the demons by category, and of course showed off how the group of mains did a much better job of kicking ass. Really the first thing that actually intrigued me about the first episode was the motorcycle, I mean that was just EPIC.

Then the episode is coming to a close, we’ve had a long string of class C, a B, then an even larger B. The mains are taking a break, drinking coffee or something, and it looks like we might be getting some exposition finally on what is going on…. Instead a high school girl with a sword shows up, is called a Class A, and then utterly kills everyone.  Leaving me going wtf at the first episode, this show was crazy. By the time the second ep was available I decided that I would come back to the show later but only after it had finished so that I could just marathon the show.

So the show ended,  I downloaded it, and proceeded to watch it. The first ep was still the same level of wtf, and I seriously want a bike that awesome in more shows. And immediately moved onto the second ep, which was a much more constant level of wtf throughout as we watched everyone getting killed by Yomi. Then the episode ends again with several people dead and the only other girl with a sword calling Yomi her sister and is about to receive a death blow.

Third episode is here to save the day, sending us to the past before all this crazy shit happens. The story starts to actually make sense now, it’s all about Kagura and Yomi with how they meet and what all happened to lead us to where the show started. After Kagura’s mom dies and her father inherits the strongest of all demons, Kagura is adopted into Yomi’s family. Yomi instantly becomes a caring older sister to her, if not a loving mom. From there the show becomes a coming of age story for Kagura as we watch her grow and mature into the role she is to play.

The show continues it’s trend of being a bit crazy, with one episode dedicated entirely to being a high school comedy love story, and a following episode that features a horror story with the female victims wearing nothing but swim suits(definitely the best way to do horror). Weapons used in combat range from one of a kind swords, drills, briefcases, umbrellas, steam irons, and a new personal favorite wheelchairs.

Music was also a high point, with plenty of good music that fits what was going on, I’m actually pretty excited over when the OST will come out. The animation for the show is also above par, there isn’t much to complain about. I thought it slightly weird how they chose to censor some of the more graphic blows, one of the worst is what looks like a yellow colored spray effect from paint, but otherwise things worked.

I’m still not sure why the first episode existed, all it really did is introduce the bad guys and the world a bit, all but one main didn’t even have screen time, and none of the mains take center stage till the second ep. But that sure didn’t stop this show from being awesome. They did a great job with this show, having just enough time to properly tell us a full story.  The ending is depressing, and it’s clearly not all resolved thanks to this show being a prequel to the manga(which is still going, and I’m currently downloading). I can only hope and pray that there will soon be a Ga-Rei anime.

I think I might be a bit of a sucker for shows that start with the end, for example Banner of the Stars II started with Jinto dying in Lafiel’s arms and both of them were speaking Abh without subtitles so we had little idea what the hell was actually going on, and it wasn’t until the last episode when we saw this same scene play out and fully understand what was going on. So through the entire show the viewer is left waiting for the end to come, and then when it does it plays out you now fully understand the situation. So when things don’t end like you thought it would, it feels great. But that of course only works if you can get us to care about the characters, so while the first episode of GRZ might have left me a bit dazed, they saved themselves with the great character building and story during the flashback episodes.

Now I’m off to read the manga Ga-Rei. ^_^ I like how it starts at exactly the same point the anime ended.

Kannagi’s Mangaka Calls in Sick. ~UPDATE!

*Update* ANN reports that Eri Takenashi the mangaka for Kannagi has underwent surgery and is currently recovering with plans to get back to work.  You can read my original post below.

Eri Takenashi(Kannagi) has joined Katsura Hoshino(D.Gray-Man), and Yoshihiro Togashi(Hunter X Hunter) in their hiatus of undetermined length.

But that isn’t the interesting thing, Kannagi has recently fallen under attack when the December chapter of the manga revealed that Nagi had an ex-boyfriend in the past. For many this brought into question her virginity, which I guess is incredibly important to them, there are some who have even taken this so far as to say that Nagi must be a slut and have renounced the manga saying that they now hate it and won’t be supporting it any further.

But now we have all sorts of doujinshi on the way.

The timing of this hiatus right on the tail of a huge upset in the fanbase leaves me wondering if the mangaka has actually been receiving threats. It’s happened before, I remember all the stories for the Evangelion series, that you can actually see some of the death threats that were sent, in the End of Eva movie. And I personally hope that things aren’t that bad for her. The anime has been doing well, and I have been totally loving it.

And thanks to this hiatus a whole new slew of rumors and attacks seem to be popping up. I just want to say, it’s pretty obvious that she’s already been kicked to the ground, do we really need to keep going? There are so many rumors flying around now that the manga will be ending prematurely or even canceled thanks to this stuff already. I just think enough is enough, let her take the break without all this abuse (even from the US side of the internet), and see what happens.

ef – a tale of melodies – 08

I just want to say that this season has been full of drama, and ALL sorts of information that I almost didn’t want to know about characters we knew from the first season. My only hope is that the end will bring it all together and be epic and awesome like the first season.

I DAMAND AN OFFICIAL CROSSOVER OVA

Take one part AWESOME BREAD.

Then one part DEATH BY JAM

And what do you get? You’ve got yourself the makings of the BEST CROSSOVER OVA EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Warning! applying Akiko’s jam on Sanae’s bread might cause and I quote “all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.”

Toaru Majutsu no Index Trolls us all

So let me paint a picture of the show Toaru Majutsu no Index. The first episode looked great, nice animation, decent music, standard main character who will give his life for the first girl he meets who needs protection while at the same time having a super unique power that allows him to defeat practically anyone.  Sadly things went downhill from there, I feel most of the problems are thanks to pacing…. but even that feels like a weak excuse for what’s happened.

And episode 5 was particularly bad in this respect with almost NOTHING happening until the last few minutes. And then leaving us with a hint that the next episode would ACTUALLY BE AWESOME…

Instead

we get

trolled.

Kurogane no Linebarrels a look at eps 1-5

Episode 1:

Funimation, I Don’t Hate You.

Shikabane Hime: Aka got licensed last week. And we already have at least two groups who have shown up to replace Lunar.  But what gets me. Funimation didn’t just license the show and go, “Screw you fans, you can watch it on DVD in a year.” Funimation is actually hosting the show on SEVERAL websites, some using a decently high res version for streaming. AND BEST OF ALL, they are releasing the episodes only a week and half after the air date free of charge. And all I’ve seen as far as them labeling it is their name on the lower right, which while i kinda wish it was a little smaller font and on the top right, I’m ok with it. I mean it’s not much more than what most TV stations do.

It’s kinda crazy that there have been two groups that decided this week and half is too much of a wait and that they would say screw you Funi we’re going to sub the show. There are plenty of other shows out there that haven’t been getting subs. Why couldn’t these new groups do something a bit more productive than making the community look like we don’t care when a US distro actually does something cool for us fans?

Anyways, Funi, you rock.

Fansubbers that pick up a licensed show and sub it just to spite them, you guys suck.

Kannagi OP Strikes Again

I loved the OP to Kannagi, easily my favorite OP for the new season. I watched it on repeat for several hours easily, that first week. And now the OST is out, lets just say the repeat issue isn’t going away. In fact it’s been the only thing so far to pull me away from Fallout 3.

Also, watched the PV. It’s like watching someone with extreme ADHD. Case and point the blender.

Subs may be a while for Jigoku Shoujo S3 *Update: There are subs

It’s been about a week now since the first ep of JSS3 premiered. Noticing that Shinsen is currently the only group that made any announcement about subbing the show. And that their active show list is already pretty long this season, I decided to see if they’ve said anything about it.

This post in the forums is the best I’ve found but it’s something.

“Ok, before more people start asking about the same thing everyday…  Yes, we will sub JS 3. Everything’s prepared so far, we’re only waiting for our translator who will come back in one or two weeks and then we’ll start.”

SO there you have it, they will be working on the show. It’ll just take a while…

Now I’m off to see if I can find out what is up with Live-Evil, It almost seems like a habit of theirs to disappear for a month and then return with a sudden rush of eps.

*Update: http://www.aerosubs.net/ Has picked the show up since Shinsen has been taking a while. I haven’t yet actually watched anything subbed by them so I have no idea what to expect, I’m just letting you know it’s there.

Fall 08 Thoughts of the New Season

A quick look at what I think of Fall 08 so far. The Ratings may sound silly for some, take them for what they sound like. Sorry for the lateness I kept putting it off in hope that subs for a couple of the shows would be out but now that half these shows already have ep2 out I might as well post it.  I have plans that when the rest of the season’s shows get subbed and stuff I’ll make another post for them.