Late May Anime Comments (some spoilers)
- From: "Dave Baranyi" <a_nospam.b_nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 22:16:49 -0400
My Spring 2006 anime viewing list has settled out now and I'm down to the
series that I'm sticking with to the end regardless. My current ratings and
the last episode that I've watched are below. The ratings are subject to
change with every subsequent episode. Below this list I will add some
spoiler space and put in comments on the series.
Sugar Sugar Rune, episode 46, rating A
One Piece, episode 263, rating B+
Eyeshield 21, episode 52, rating B
Meitantei Conan, episode 438, rating A
Capeta, episode 30, rating B+
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, episode 8, rating B
xxxHolic, episode 7, rating A
Ouran High School Host Club, episode 7, rating A
Magical? Pokahan, episode 7, rating B-
Inukami, episode 7, rating B
Spider Riders, episode 7, rating B
Zegapain, episode 7, rating B+
Spoiler
Space
For
Comments
Sugar Sugar Rune feels like it is heading into the home stretch. Chocola
found a potential method to bring back Vanilla from the Dark Heart via
somewhat of a deus ex machina solution and a new character. But Chocola may
also be forced to decide between saving Vanilla and saving Pierre, and the
preview for episode 47 promises that the audience will find out about the
long forgotten connection between Pierre and Chocola.
One Piece has been showing up so infrequently this year that it feels more
like an OAV series than a TV series. This has meant that the beginning of
each episode has had to have a three to five minute recap. However, it
appears that episode 264 will start some massive action as Luffy has many
more allies in his fight against CP 9 this time.
I have yet to catch up on Eyeshield 21 and have around 7 or more episodes to
watch. It will be interesting to see if the series recaptures my interest
after a couple of months of not watching it.
Meitantei Conan has yet another new opening and closing, neither of which
grabbed me, but the stories and characters continue to be entertaining.
There is still no evidence that the series will be wrapped up in the
foreseeable future. But they can't wait too much longer - the VAs are
getting pretty old. <L>
As with Eyeshield 21, I took quite a long break from Capeta, but I found
that I enjoyed it just as much when I got back to it as I had before. It
will be interesting to see what solution the writers find to Capeta's
chronic money problems, particularly since his kart is on its last legs in
the current race.
Suzumiya Haruhi has been going up and down in my ratings ever since it
started, and it will be interesting to see if the writers can pull it out of
its current slide downwards. I still haven't found myself caring about the
characters; strange, alien or whatever. My guess right now is that the
climax and denouement will be a bit of a letdown, but I'll continue to give
the series the benefit of doubt for the time being.
xxxHolic continues to be one of the shows that I look forward to the most
each week. I'm fascinated by the connection between Yuuko and Watanuki. I've
read comments that see this as a pseudo-big sister/younger brother, but my
impression is that Yuuko is grooming Watanuki as her future "consort". (And
maybe Doumeki too, given the size of Yuuko's appetite.<L>) BTW - here is an
odd segue - when I typed "Watanuki" above, my spell checker suggested,
"Satanic".<L> BTW II - it was particularly gratifying to hear Toshio
Furukawa (Ataru Moroboshi) as the Fox in episode 5. It's always great to
hear some of the old pros from UY in modern anime.
I find Ouran Host Club most entertaining when it is focused upon Haruhi's
droll reactions to the madness that goes on around her. As such, I find the
recent episodes a bit less interesting because I don't care about the
secondary characters. Never-the-less, each episode so far has had a lot of
entertainment value, and I am looking forward to seeing where the series
goes.
The jokes in Magipoka are starting to get a little tired now that the story
line has strayed from the "stranger in a strange land" approach and is now
using the girls to satirize traditional anime genres. Never-the-less, the
satire is still fairly funny. The strength of the series from the beginning
has been bawdiness, and they need to return to that to keep things going.
Inukami hasn't forgotten its bawdiness, nor its "borrowing" from UY. The
only problem is that they need to borrow from the better UY stories, not
from Movie 6, as they did in episode 7. The preview for episode 8 suggests
that another UY regular, Megane, will be "borrowed". I wonder if they will
use the original VA for Megane?
The original VA for UY's Megane, Shigeru Chiba, is getting some work in
Spider Riders and is doing the kind of whacked-out job for "Grasshopu" that
would make Megane proud! <g> There are actually a lot of seasoned pros in
the VA ranks for this series, and it shows in the quality of the voice
acting. It also helps that the character development is a bit off-the-wall
in some of the cases, particularly that of Prince Lumen.
Zegapain continues to intrigue and impress me at the same time it continues
to depress me. This is turning into one of the darkest series I've seen
since Narutaru. But there are a lot of questions being raised too. Just who
wrote the "cheat" for Kyo next to the locker? If everyone is dead, who is
running the servers? And just how much difference is there between the
"server humans" and the "created humans" of the enemy anyway? I keep on
thinking that if this were a Campbell-age Heinlein novel it would turn out
that Kyo was just being used by the real enemy and things aren't really what
they seem. But who knows where this will go?
Dave Baranyi
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