Anime Potpourri
I feel bad leaving topleka out to dry on the reviewage here, but I'm usually too busy/lazy to write proper reviews of what I watch, take screens, etc. But here's a little reading material anyways.Bleach
I feel kind of let down after the Soul Society arc, although I understand the need for a filler to let the manga progress. I suppose it was inevitable. I'll take care of non-story gripes before we get into that - the music is getting progressively worse, and the animation seems to drop off in quality whenever there isn't a battle happening. The new opening is really bad... not "Battlecry" from Samurai Champloo bad but dangerously close. It wants to be an American pop song too badly.
Okay, actual story things. What bothers me the most, I think, is the massive difference in strength I'm perceiving in both sides. Either Ichigo (who has, for some reason, lost the ability to activate Bankai) and the crew have lost a significant amount of power in returning to the real world or the Bounto have had theirs set unbelievingly high to compensate. The presence of over half a dozen spiritually-aware humans with powers which I estimate to be on at least a Lieutenant's level doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Ichigo also seems to have forgotten just about all that he learned in Soul Society; he's much too reckless. The rest of the crew is even more useless than before - and Rukia, we know your powers haven't come back yet. You can stop reminding us.
On the plus side, the storyline didn't really come out of nowhere. The Bounto fit within the Bleach universe in the sense that it's not unreasonable to consider the existence of groups of spiritually-aware humans. I also don't mind the Doll concept; it provides a foil to the Shinigami Zanpaktou and makes for some interesting battles, as they too have their own strengths and personalities.
Even so, I really hope we can get back to the manga plotline soon.
Zeta Gundam II: Lovers
Yes, the fansub was released awhile back and I made sure to snag this baby. I thought it was a lot better than the first. A larger portion of the movie utilized reanimated scenes, although the transitions were still pretty bad. The storyline also flowed a little better, although it was not without its cuts and rewrites. Unfortunately, I don't remember the series well enough to know what was cut and what wasn't, so I can't account for any of it. Finally, I was saddened by the fact that the Zeta Gundam's introduction was via old footage. It better get some major reanimated time in the third movie.
.hack//Roots - episode 01
Dan likes. In fact, I think it has the potential to be a lot better than .hack//SIGN. The opening is a little odd - we first meet main character Haseo getting owned by some player killers, although he is revived by the mysterious Ovan, who says "You got hidden skillz, bro" before leaving. We learn that Ovan's Twilight Guild is in the process of recruiting new members for its relaunch, and Haseo is one of its prospects. This prompts the TaN group to launch an investigation. A lot is happening already, and I like that - .hack//SIGN moved much too slowly, here we might get some real action.
Other things I like - the background. The new version of the World is much more interesting than the last, as player-killers seem to be common and order is mostly absent. No Crimson Knights or whatever. This increases player freedom, I guess, which can easily be abused. The two player-killers Haseo meets at the end of the first episode, who use cute girl PCs to disguise their intentions, are an interesting case-in-point. Speaking of cute girl PCs, I like the wider variety of PC designs in general. Finally, the music is great. I mean, it's FictionJunction and Ali Project... yeah, their stuff all sounds the same after awhile, but it's good stuff to begin with, so I don't care.
posted by newtypezaku @ 10:44 PM
3 Comments:
.Hack//Roots 01 was certainly interesting.
I can't wait to see how it progresses.
As for A New Translation - it's too bad they didn't redo everything, it would've taken much longer, but it'd also look a lot better. The Music also comes across as a bit dated...
Fortunately it's still a nice story and what new animation there is, does look awesome ;o
I find myself thinking that if they add any more characters to Bleach, my brain is going to explode. I've never seen an anime with so many characters, and character names to remember, it's insane. I agree that the whole power difference is annoying, but I like the Bounto storyline and that they're trying to recruit Ishida. You know he needs another hobby other than the crafts club, now that the whole Quincy thing isn't taking up so much of his time. ;) I'm glad they brought Rukia back now, instead of waiting for the Arrancar storyline. And Renji's arrival had me lmao. But yes, the gang seem pretty useless right now since their return from SS.
Yeah, I would've liked to see all of Zeta redone, since the animation is clearly dated. But I really enjoy the music, there's plenty of feeling and movement. I find myself humming it almost as often as more recent stuff ^_^
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home