revisiting the anime scene

Before I go back to playing Call of Duty 4 with my fellow Australian Yogogorilla - the man who dresses up in thongs and a shirt whilst leaving his ballsack clearly exposed as he chugs down a beer - there are a few words which I must share with the public. First off is this Mp3 I found in my hard drive, which was sung in my honor about yours truly by somebody during my WoW days; such is proof of my wonderous existence.

I did make clear my lack of enthusiasm about Spring’s anime line-up, didn’t I? Well in hindsight, I was perhaps a little too disparaging in my forethought, and granted that it’s been a while since I’ve checked out some shounen and shoujo works, it’s an opportune time to grab my fix. Unfortunately due to bandwidth issues, I regret to say that I must abstain from going on an irrational download spree by grabbing every new release that hits the web, which would result in my ISP throttling my speed to something along the lines of a dial-up connection; so in regards to regulating my usage, I’ve only picked out a few select titles to give a viewing. I’m not going to go into them and express my thoughts on every insignificant detail, because there’s little to say at this present time.

In spite of my general disinterest for shounen works, I gave Nabari no Ou a whirl and concluded that it wasn’t bad at all. For the overused genre regarding ninjas and the like, it’s unsurprising that the story doesn’t deviate itself from the usual bowl of shallow plot archetypes which are usually within immediate recognition, but it’s intriguing in its own right. The story follows an apathetic teenager who has a great destructive power imbued within him, though he’s not really able to control it - yea, it’s not exactly sublime in its originality, but what delivers are the more intricate details, not the grazing of the exterior. Of course, I just happen to have a… “liking” of sorts towards blonde girls with twin tails and ribbons, so this is perhaps not the most unbiased opinion, but really it’s enough shounen for now. Not making many doubts that I’ll be dropping this series anytime soon (hearing Rie Kugimiya’s male voice is also a delight).

Do want.

Code Geass R2 is coming along nicely; my expectations regarding this specific series are high - though well-deserved - especially given its reputable notoriety. Pacing is absolutely spot on and is exactly what I’d expect from a follow-up that left you hanging like S1’s commendably executed cliffhanger of a finale, and episode two has already sparked some revelations; as such, there is little to say. And despite any convictions that might have arisen from the picture above (the comic, that is), I’m not a real follower of fanservice anime (the irony is beyond words); it was only implemented for comedic purposes (and on that note: the frequent butchering of the anime’s pronunciation sounds awkward as hell if you say it in English, as it should really come of as To-Ra-Bu-Ru/Trouble because of its phonetically ambiguous qualities, but after all, I’m not exactly Japanese-minded so rolling off “To-Love-Ru” on my tongue was weird), but I do watch it in the hopes that it won’t be anywhere near as terrible as Rosario + Vampire. And uh… on the subject of Vampires.

Vampire Knight seems like another quality watch this season; it harbours something that’s far from a particularly perplexing premise, leaving multiple possibilities open if you have yet to read the manga. I also do not wish to waste post space, so I’ll stick in a filler regarding Battle Moon Wars.

Probably more appealing to Type-MOON fans than anything else, but Battle Moon Wars is basically the result of fusing characters from Nasu’s works with the fundamental gameplay of the Super Robot Wars series together to form a hybrid turn-based strategy RPG (or more simply put - an S-RPG) where you’re in control of numerous TM characters, with battle conducted on an isometric grid - the ultimate goal being the realisation of a “what if?” situation. The SRW combat style has also leaked into game’s aesthetic qualities, though its prominence is as intended, of course. I guess during my final WoW days (May 07) I needed something to pass the time post-raids, so I picked this up not expecting anything particularly mesmerising, especially given the fact that I cannot decipher Moonspeak; however, despite my allegations, it was actually pretty damn fun.

It’s unfortunate that at my time of playing, no such English patch was in existence, and rightfully I now grieve upon the fact that I understood absolutely zilch of the story, and my laziness doesn’t permit me to go back and play it over again whilst obtaining all the battle masteries, especially when it’s unclear to me as to what factors in to influencing Satsuki’s recruitment (I just got lucky this time); however, time has passed and fiction has turned to fact. I’d like to extend my gratitude to the author of this patch who has selflessly taken it upon himself to fashion the script into something legible for English speakers. Of course, it isn’t complete yet, but a good bulk of the game is playable in English. I think it’s worth playing, particularly for the game’s ludicrously bizarre, humourous, fanciful and grandiose battle animations (and killer soundtrack!) which is significative of SRW’s wacky sense of aesthetics.

I’ll be checking out Da Capo II S2 when I wake up.

~ by Espydon on 16 April, 2008.