Watched a bunch of shows over the last couple months and kept forgetting to ramble about them here. So now you guys get concentrated, industrial-strength rambling instead. Lucky you.
Black Lagoon: Finally got around to seeing the second season of this by raiding TV Links (dammit, Geneon). It continues to be totally badass. Solid action, enough character work to keep me watching, tons of style...just excellent on every front. Home to some of the most endearing nutjobs around, too (SAWYER. The world needs more chainsawgirls). Also:
Balalaika. Is. Love.
Glad to hear that someone else is picking this up for American distribution in the wake of Geneon's implosion. Hope they'll keep the same english VAs.
Claymore: Yeah yeah, show of monster swordgirls, automatic Cid-bait, etc. What can I say? Well, I did enjoy it for reasons other than girls in skintight bodysuits turning into monsters and beating the crap out of other monsters (though I can't say I objected to any of that). Interesting array of powers on display, and watching Clare--nominally the least powerful member of the organization--work her way up by mixing and matching abilities seen elsewhere and generally just being inventive was always fun. I enjoy seeing the learning process at work, and Clare was relentless in improving herself.
The downside? Raki. He was harmless enough for most of the series, and Clare having motivation to be something other than a relentless killing machine is naturally a plus. And then the final plot arc comes and he fails it up hardcore. "No, you can't kill the ruthless, man-eating monster! She might have had a traumatic childhood! And if you kill her you'll be just like her! ...For some reason!"
Priscilla's a rabid dog, dude, and you're going all moon-eyed just because you had accidental-hand-on-boob with her. I mean...jesus christ, that was reprehensible. And seriously, everyone in Claymore had a traumatic childhood. Normal people don't sign up for an organization like this. The clueless, horny teenager elects himself the team's moral barometer, someone genuinely innocent dies instead, and the monster flies away. ::psyduck::, Raki. ::psyduck::
Good show apart from that stupidity, though.
Coyote Ragtime Show: Empty fluff. It's decently stylish, but the characters are largely one-note and Mister's a Marty Stu. Show totally should've been about the killer lolibot brigade. I was way more interested in them and Marciano than any of the main characters. Swordgirl android crimelord? Yes, thanks. (Though, I had to laugh at her speech to the Crime Guild leaders. "This criminal organization is corrupt!" Riiiight). I've gotta say, Angela toting around May's head for the whole series was probably the highlight of the show.
Disgaea: No, I don't know why I bothered either. Anyway, it doesn't fail as much as the Xenosaga anime and that's about as positive as I can be about it. Well, they retained a lot of the game's VA cast, so I guess that's something.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Show of Notmiki! Consistently over the top and I can't say I minded. It's not entirely my style, but I have to admire something so devoted to cramming as much cheese as possible into every episode. At the very least, it's unique. Pretty neat variety of abilities at work, too. I like seeing people thoroughly explore the limits of an invented system. The copious references to rock music are, of course, just icing. Speaking of which, down with Iced! Seriously, what an asshole. He doesn't just kick the dog, he cuts it in half, stomps on its head, and THEN kicks it across the room. Fuckwad.
Key the Metal Idol: I posted about this a while ago, but I hadn't watched the entire series. I have now finished it, and must sadly report that it's all downhill after episode thirteen. Really unfortunate, because the initial thirteen-episode run was excellent work. For reference, there are only fifteen episodes...but the last two are each an hour and a half long. Episode fourteen is ninety minutes of painful expository dialogue and the finale is just a godawful mess.
The show still does plenty of things right, though, and I would recommend that people watch it. Solid writing when dealing either the mundane or the more fantastical metaplot (and there's a good balance of both). The pop songs were also excellent and Tallychu should be clubbed with them. And, probably the highlight, the cast is uniformly memorable. Like 'em or not, I don't think that can be argued. Sakura is an endearing but flawed Token Sane Person, D is frighteningly driven for a henchperson and even fairly stylish when he wants to be ("It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye"), Tsurugi is a madman but somehow makes perfect sense as an eclectic artist (who was it that said "Poor people are crazy. Rich people are eccentric"?) and Ajo...
Ajo reaches heights of insanity that rival King Hamdo at his worst. This is not an exaggeration, he's one of the creepiest dudes I've seen in anime. Watching his subordinates variously turn on one another or self-destruct was morbidly fascinating. It wouldn't be accurate to say he has no regard for human life; rather, he has no understanding of the very concept in the first place, and the clearly fetishishtic fixation on machinery only adds to the ick factor. This is someone who's never quite dwelt in the real world, and every fiber of his being is bent on dragging us into his. Truly deserved the headsplosion.
As for the title character...I was going to say that she's a decent take on the old "android trying to become human" angle, but that's not quite true, given how the ending turns out. Her social awkwardness was interesting enough to watch during the superb thirteen-episode arc, at least.
Mermaid Forest: Pretty good. Charts the course of two unwilling immortals as the figure out the modern world and try to find a remedy for their condition. This results in some of the cliffhanger situations traditional to serial fiction (Uh oh, Erk in danger!) being amusingly obsolete. I really should've counted how many times the main characters got killed. It may have exceeded the Anthy Bitchslap Count.
Also notable for having some of the craziest supporting characters ever. At first, I thought the woman with demon arm in the title episode was pretty out there, but the show easily upped the ante with the deranged mom who cut her own face off and replaced it with someone else's. I figured there wasn't anything freakier they could do after that. Boy, was I wrong. The murderous, nine-hundred-year-old shotabait tops everything just by blinking. If he doesn't sound as messed up conceptually, I can assure you that he is in execution.
The kicker? The show's not really driven by gore or traditional horror elements (despite some damned unpleasant stuff happening). It never stops being a character study centered around the mains; it just happens to have a totally bonkers procession of guest stars.
My-Otome: Disappointment. Perhaps that's not the most accurate word, since I saw all its problems coming from the trailers, but it still sucks to see all the nice little character work Hime did be forsaken for generic hijinx here. Really can't think of anything positive to say about it. Well, no: This Week's Armitage. But that's about it.
Scrapped Princess: Also posted previously when I was about...halfway through this one? It's entertaining fluff. Sticks to its chosen formula and executes it adequately. That's enough to swing something around an average score from me. My only real beef with the show was that it decided to dive into the crapper halfway through the last episode. It's like, after an all-night Dew and nacho binge spent writing the grand finale, some genius on the staff went "Oh, wait guys, we were serious for a whole five minutes there. We'd better throw in some PERVERT PERVERT PERVERT jokes to balance things out. No, it doesn't matter that Shannon just saved Pacifica's life, there's always room for pervert jokes! And then we'll have her go be needlessly cruel to Leo when he pours his feelings out to her. I mean, it's not like she learned anything or grew at all during these twenty-six episodes, right? Right. Let's just knock this sucker out and go get stoned at a karaoke bar."
Still a decent show, but god, that ending was lame.
Venus Versus Virus: Genericrap. Deserves no further comments.
