HATE FUN? - Uninformed Judgments on Spring Anime Part 2

March 10th, 2008 by Brack

Kyo kara Maoh! 3rd Season

Popular goofy bishounen fantasy returns.

Macross Frontier

Latest Macross series starts proper. I’ve seen in numerous places people thinking they’ll need to have seen every episode of previous Macross series to follow this, which I found odd. Surely the sheer distance between series would suggest that’s not the case. Did Gundam series ever have this problem of perception?

On the basis of the first episode they aired a while back, I’m tentatively looking forward to this. Unusually, it was the thing that normally turns me off a show - CGI mecha battles - that I found to be strongest element of that first episode. The weakest point was the character designs, which looked like they belonged in a digitally animated porn OAV.

xxxHolic: Kei

As much as I like Tsutomu Mizushima, and I found the Clamp design and situation a good match to his Sam Raimi inspired direction, the first series of this left me bored about a third of the way in (his movie version, on the other hand, is excellent).

Budget problems and underwhelming scripts killed the show for me. For a studio like Production IG it was a little disappointing to see the animation quality drop off so quickly. Mizushima’s on this series too, but so are the people responsible for writing the last series, so unless I hear that Mizushima’s producing his best work, I’m not interested.

Allison & Lillia

Based on two manga by Shigusawa Keiichi (Kino’s Journey), this is an NHK series animated by Madhouse, so there is potential classiness incoming. That said, director Masayoshi Nishida hasn’t really set my world alight in the past, but the combo of source material, broadcaster and studio should make it worth a look.

Posted in Anime, Hate Fun? | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

HATE FUN? - Uninformed Judgments on Spring Anime Part 1

March 9th, 2008 by Brack

It’s that time again to pass judgement on Japansese cartoons that are airing in spring, based solely on their websites and minimal research.

BUS GAMER

The word is this is only 3 episodes long. It’s based on a manga by Kazuya Minekura (Saiyuki), about an “underground” business (the bus of the title) game. I’d have been more interested if it involved buses.

Gag Manga Biyori 3

The fansubs of season 2 of this stopped a few eps in, so I’m not getting my hopes up for seeing this subtitled. Shame, as these have been Akitaro Daichi at his comedic best.

Chi’s Sweet Home

ADORABLE CAT.

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Third variation of the Yu-Gi-Oh theme. No doubt it will be anglicised in a year or so’s time when Yu-Gi-Oh GX is done. Character designs look a little odd compared to the previous shows, and those green haired moppets on the front page look like they’d be very annoying very quick.

Posted in Anime, Hate Fun? | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Hate Fun? Notes from the front line of new anime.

October 10th, 2007 by Brack

KAIJI EPISODE 1

Excellent stuff. The only thing I’ve seen so far that looks worth following.

DRAGONAUT EPISODE 1

This had some nice animation, but all in service of something incredibly generic. And what’s worse the Dragonauts of the title threaten to be horrible 3D CG creations that’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Bits will look nice in an MAD animation showcase, but it’s not worth the bother.

RENTAL MAGICA

I got the first ep of this to watch, but so far I’ve only briefly flicked through. The idea is neat, that of having characters who use “real” magic concepts, rather than stuff made up for the story, but the animation and design is generic anime with a hint of moe (though equal opportunity moe in this case, the male characters get the moe treatment too), and sucks all the delicate linework and character from the original designs.

HATE FUN BONUS NON ANIME MEMO

The Peter Serafinowicz Show

Oh dear, I was hoping this would be funnier than it turned out. As it was the funniest bits were the bits he’d already done on Youtube, the rest raised a smile, but no guffaws were heard chez Brack.

Posted in Hate Fun? | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

HATE FUN? October Anime! Part 6~!

October 2nd, 2007 by Brack

Bits and bobs I missed. One more to come after this I think.

YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE is some more YUA anime. Now I prefer YUA to AMG!, but it doesn’t exactly set my world on fire. Fujishima’s a better artist than a writer, but anime versions of his manga aren’t ever going to capture his draughtsmanship. What is especially mind boggling is that this series is being directed by Koichi Ohata (MD GEIST, MD GEIST II - DEATH FORCE, GENOCYBER) I am half expecting the cast to be cyborgs. I had no interest in watching this series until I learnt this, I am now curious in a rubbernecking a car crash sort of way.

MOONLIGHT MILE 2 is the sequel to Moonlight Mile, a show I have seen 1 episode of that I enjoyed for it’s over the top manliness rather than it’s animation which was perfunctory. I guess if you watched the first series, here’s more of the same.

KAWAII JENNY is a scary scary stop motion (?) show designed to sell dolls/traumatise young minds. Jenny battles eyepatched Hitler Teddy Bears in a Giant Robot.

MOYASIMON: TALES OF AGRICULTURE had me at the welcoming cartoon of microorganisms that greets you on the show’s website. I’ve read that this is about an agricultural student who can see and talk to microorganisms. THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE GREATEST THING EVER.

DA CAPO 2 is more moe shit.

Posted in Animation, Anime, Hate Fun? | | 1 Comment »

HATE FUN? October Anime! Part 5~!

October 1st, 2007 by Brack

And still they come…

PRISM ARK is fantasy anime based on a pornographic videogames, directed a man familiar with both videogames AND pornography, Masami Obari. Obari is a talented animator who has worked on awful lot of stuff that peddles to the lowest common denominator, and a lot of it has been of his own devising. At the best you can hope for is the series might produce some nice action sequences you can watch on youtube at a later date. I really don’t see it being worth following.

SHION NO OH is the shogi/murder mystery anime you’ve all been demanding. It’s a Studio DEEN production who are OK, nothing really to write home about. And it might seem odd coming from someone who’s looking forward to Kaiji, but I’m not feeling the character designs.

SHAKUGAN NO SHANA SECOND is, surprise, surprise, the second series of Shakugan no Shana, the kinda popular moe-action show. I saw the first ep of the first series. It had some nice animation, but the story bored me stupid, and I hate the character designs.

SHUGO CHARA! is the latest anime adaptation of a manga by the bargain basement CLAMP, Peach-Pit. Peach-Pit’s “me too” product’s popularity bewilders me, it really does.

SKETCHBOOK ~FULL COLOUR~ looks to be another “girls doing stuff” anime. Anyway, this looks simpering rubbish for soft lads.

Posted in Animation, Anime, Hate Fun? | | No Comments »

HATE FUN? October Anime! Part 4~!

September 30th, 2007 by Brack

FOLKLORE~! HAMSTERS~! GIRLS~! DEMONS~! WIZARDS~! HATE~!~!~!

MOKKE is a manga adaptation that probably got made due to the current vogue for folklore based stories. Again, unless I hear great things blah blah blah.

HATARA KIDS MAI HAMU GUMI is a new Hamster based anime. Because you can never have enough of them. Instead of Hamtaro-esque plush toy make-able designs, these hamsters appear to be COOL! EDGY! and EXTREME!

MYSELF;YOURSELF is another game-based anime. YAWN.

MAJIN TANTEI NOGAMI NEURO is the detective show I’m looking forward to. The Jump manga it’s based on is about a demonic detective Neuro, who comes to Earth to eat mysteries (his favourite food) with the assistance of student Yako. The art in manga veers from the awful (humans) and awesome (monstrous things from hell and Neuro), with some great panel composition that outweigh’s creator Yusei Matsui’s extremely loose grasp on anatomy. Madhouse are producing the anime, but the staff is somewhat underwhelming. But I liked what I’ve seen of the manga and it’s a detective show, so I shall be checking out.

NIGHT WIZARD is based on an pencil and paper RPG I think. Looks awfully generic. No one on the staff that grabs me. Just a Kids Station schedule filler by the looks of things.

Posted in Animation, Anime, Hate Fun? | | No Comments »

HATE FUN? October Anime! Part 3~!

September 30th, 2007 by Brack

More of what not to not to not watch.

KIMIKISS PURE ROUGE is another dating sim anime. Be giving that a miss then.

KODOMO NO JIKAN is the anime of that manga that caused all sorts of fuss over it’s potential US release earlier this year. Yes it’s that fucking creepy thing about a prepubescent girl with a crush on her teacher, published in a magazine for men. The mind boggles that they made a TV show.

SUTEKI TANTEI LABYRINTH is detective show, based on the manga of the same name by Meito Manjo and Seiji Wakayama. Slayers & King of Bandit Jing director Hiroshi Watanabe is in charge. There’s only one new detective show I want to see this season, and this isn’t it…

RENTAL MAGICA looks like a less fun and thus less good Ghost Sweeper Mikami. Director Itsuro Kawasaki has done some good work, just not as a director. Unless I hear great things, I shan’t bother.

MINAMI-KE is in the genre “girls doing things” that is popular in seinen at the moment and gets mistaken/mislabelled as shoujo in the west by idiots. Let us all ignore this and hope it goes away.

Posted in Animation, Anime, Hate Fun? | | No Comments »

HATE FUN? October Anime! Part 2~!

September 29th, 2007 by Brack

More anime not to watch.

GENSHIKEN is returning for a second TV series. I enjoyed some episodes of the first series, but stopped watching after episode 9. Not because I thought it was bad, but that it was so good there was no way it could have been bettered. Different director this time round according to ANN. And that new director is Kinji Yoshimoto, cohort of noted nipple enthusiast Satoshi Urushihara, and director of such works as Another Lady Innocent, Legend of Lemnear, Plastic Little and Night Shift Nurses:Experiment~!~?~! If ANN has the credits correct this is Yoshimoto’s most “mainstream” directorial work yet. It could be interesting, like Russ Meyer directing Spaced…

GHOST HOUND is Production I.G.’s big 20th anniversary show. It’s the creation of director Ryutaro Nakamura (Lain), screenwriter Chiaki J. Konaka (Lain), and Masamune Shirow (pictures of oiled up cowgirls).  This is totally going to get licensed for English language release on the basis of those three names and the fact that it’s no doubt gonna get a heaping budget given to it. While Nakamura and Konaka produce solid stories, none of their work really sets my world alight any more, though Lain did at the time. And I don’t really care for Shirow’s dense stories either.

GUNDAM 00 is the 28490128490128th Gundam series. On the plus side, unlike the past few years, more than one face will appear in a Gundam show. Fullmetal Alchemist’s Seiji Mizushima directs, and Yousuke Kuroda writes. Kuroda’s part of, and indeed creator of, the Studio Orphee writing company/machine/collection of hacks. As such he has a massive resume of writing credits that veer from the very good to the mediocre. I wouldn’t say anything is outright appalling, and I suspect he’s writing to order for the most part. The quality this show will likely hang on what sort of show the Sunrise production behemoth wanted, at first glance it looks far more enticing than Gundam SEED did.

JYUSHIN ENBU - HERO TALES boasts character designs from it’s manga artist Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist). Unfortunately by the looks of the website the actual animated versions haven’t captured the charm of her characters as well as FMA’s anime did.  Director Osamu Sekita’s resume is lacking anything notable, as is the production company Studio Flag’s. Unless I hear wonderful things I shall give this a miss.

KAIJI is the one I’m looking forward to. From the same team that brought you the same author’s Akagi two years ago, Kaiji is another sport manga of sorts. Only this time the “sport” is gambling~! Director Yuzo Sato showed with Akagi that he can wring every last ounce of tension from Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s work and get it onto the screen, so this is a must see.

Posted in Animation, Anime, Hate Fun? | | No Comments »

HATE FUN? October Anime!

September 29th, 2007 by Brack

I hope you’ve enjoyed the abundance of good anime there’s been this year, because next week it comes to a juddering halt.

BAMBOO BLADE is a show written by R.O.D creator Hideyuki Kurata based on a manga by Masahiro Totsuka and Aguri Igarashi that runs in Young Gangan magazine.  It appears to be about teenage girls and kendo. Looks like this is the director Hisashi Saito’s first directorial project, and animation is by AIC A.S.T.A. (Godannar, GUNxSWORD). Looks like typical shallow trash aimed at male teenagers and college kids.

BLUE DROP is a manga adaptation by Masahiko Ohkura (Yukikaze) from the manga by Akihito Yoshitomi (Eat-Man, Ray). Though apparently the original concept it Ohkura’s. The pair of them are doing the writing on the anime too.  I will likely check this out as I enjoyed what I saw of Yukikaze, and it seems that there’s a creative intent towards creating this anime, rather than doing a work for hire adaptation intended to sell more copies of the manga.

CLANNAD is based on a moe visual novel. It’s animated by Kyoto Animation. Softy Walter’s can rejoice. I would rather have my eyes removed with a rusty claw hammer.

DRAGONAUT wins the prize for title you can’t believe has been used before. The bad news is that it’s a GONZO series. Mamoru Hosoda cohort, Tadashi Sakazaki, is the Chief Animation Director so I may check out the start of series for the animation before the inevitable spiral into patchiness.

ef - A TALE OF MEMORIES is some more moe romance shit from the production studio I wish would away from the darkside of otaku orientated crud and do a good show for once, SHAFT. To be fair that suicidal teacher show toys with being good, but is still too mired in whats become the stagnant late night anime genre. This looks considerably worse than anything they’ve done before.

Posted in Animation, Anime, Hate Fun? | | 1 Comment »

Good News, The Stereophonics!

April 18th, 2007 by Brack

You are no longer the worst band on the face of Planet Earth.

That position is now held by The Twang.

The Twang are the worst band in the world.

Posted in Hate Fun?, Music | | No Comments »

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »