Been meaning to remake this thread ever since 8chan went down, but just now getting around to it.

So, the most recent series that I finished was Armitage III and it's a great series. The premise is that Earth has become a feminized and despotist society, which has prompted those seeking freedom or escape to flee to Mars (Such as has happened with cyborg industry). One of those people seeking escape is a Chicago detective leaving Earth to join the Mars police department; and, upon his arrival, immediately gets involved with a conspiracy dealing with the extermination of an illegal brand of robots that no one knew existed: the Thirds, a robot series that are capable of breeding. The rest of the series unfolds more as a detective story (Rather than some spy thriller) with it all ending on a rather depressing tone. The animation for the show is rather fluid and excellent to watch (Although the art has a peculiar "Western" feel to it), and I'm curious as to where they take things with Dual Matrix. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who's curious in watching it.

And, next time, I shouldn't wait nearly three months before posting about a series that I finished.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I just finished off Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, and it was a rather fun series. The story is that late-19th century Japan has been taken over by by metallic zombies, which has caused the cities and towns to build walls to keep the countries citizens safe and leaving the only “safe” passage of travel across the country to be the railway system. The story kicks off when one of these cities is breached by a runaway train, which cause the surviving citizens to flee. The protagonist of the series is a smithy that is bitten by the zombies but is able to stop the infection, but now lives as a human/zombie hybrid. Once the usual “But I am human” formalities get out the way, the story actually starts moving along with the zombies becoming more of a “tool” for the villains of the series rather than being THE overall threat.

If you're looking for a “deep” series, you will be sorely disappointed as it plays on the same tropes that are seen elsewhere in other zombie media; people focusing on settling personal grudges rather than surviving, estranged “leaders” looking for a way to increase their power rather than looking for ways to survive, etc.. The reason to watch this series is for the trains and the action with steam tech. At times, the show reminded me of Snowpiercer, but the show didn't spend all of it's time with the passengers on the train and focuses more on the characters moving from town to town. Actually, thinking about it, the story actually reminds me of the progression and “fun” of Bioshock 2, with the character just moving along in a doomed (vintage) world with some faint amount of hope that things will be get better, and slaughtering an endless stream of enemies along the way.

The animation and art of the series is rather enjoyable to look at, though it seems like the studio did make the shading weirdly offputting. Also the series, the series does use quite a bit of CG, but much of it isn't that noticeable outside of the trains and the bigger monsters as they seemed to have done the usual thing of overlaying the CG with actual drawings. The audio also stays in the background for much of the series and only comes into the forefront during two of the “crucial” scenes in the series.

Overall, I would recommend the series to anyone looking for a fun, mindless violence, series to watch.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

I didn't finish it in that I watched it all the way to the end, but I would like to declare that I am DONE watching Genesis of Aquarion after watching 19 episodes. Here are the reasons why.

The premise of the series is that the homosexual angels in heaven are slaughtering humans for God knows why. However, one day, one of these homosexuals decides that he prefers the breasts and vagina of a woman over another man's penis, and decides to rebel against his fellow angels and drives them off. Fast forward 12 thousand years, and the angels have returned to now harvest humans, instead of mass slaughtering, them in order to get revenge on the angel who decided that he no longer wanted to be a homosexual.

NO, I AM NOT MAKING THAT SHIT UP!

And, the U.N. has created a special task force designed to pilot three ancient mechs and whose purpose is to fight off the angels. The series focuses on Apollo, a survivor of one of these harvestings, who ends up becoming the best pilot through sheer will and that he's the reincarnation of said anti-gay angel. AND, that's all you really need to know about the series as the rest of it cannot decide what it wants to be. The show is setup about the cast going to a school designed to teach them how to pilot the mech, but never a single thing is explained as to how anything works. Some of the kids have ESP powers, but their instructors know as much about this as the viewer. One of the instructors is apparently “the voice of God”, who takes over the academy in the first episode but never anything is revealed, including how it is that he is now “officially” in charge. There's a vampire as well, for some reason. A couple of the kids are the decedent of the anti-gay angel. The mechs merging together seems to be some euphemism for sex. OH, and the protagonist of the series doesn't really seem all that interested in saving his friends who were abducted. In fact, it seems like none of the cast really are. You get glimpses of all the “pain” the characters have had in their life, but it all feels so shallow and artificial in it's deliver and seems to serve no other purpose than reignite the character's flame to give them a “cause” to punch something. And that's pretty much how everything in this series is resolved, the characters finally get angry enough to have a reason to punch the enemies on top of the myriad of reasons that worked before but not now.

And, let's be honest, I have no problem with the idea the “violence solves all problems”. More often than not it does, but that's not the point. When a character is willing to risk the life of his teammates, and friends, because of selfish matters, you yank them out of combat and put the next best person in (Which is possible in the most immediate way because they have teleportation machines). YOU DO NOT LEAVE THEM IN THE FIELD AND POSSIBLY CAUSE THE DEATHS OF EVERYONE INVOLVED! In fact, the show keeps trying to show that “each person is important”, but that isn't the way things work. There are over 20 characters in the series who are suited up and ready for battle, and less than half of them are fleshed out in any way despite becoming more “vital” to the story later on. Even less are even shown piloting the damn things or using the training machines (Outside of when it's relevant). I know this criticism can be bypassed with stating “Well, they're just a bunch of kids at a school. Don't worry about the fact that this is a military school and that the kids are part of a military project,” if it wasn't for the fact that other series have had to deal with kids in this situation as well. The original Mobile Suit Gundam series was actually about a group kids, caught in the middle of a war, and they weren't willing to put up with even a fraction of the stuff the adults are allowing in this series. Then there was Aim for the Top! Gunbuster (Another show that I didn't particularly care for, but still better this) where the first episode didn't try to hide the fact that the protagonist WAS going to fail, not become a mech pilot, and someone else was going to take the place that she wanted.

But, enough on ragging about the story, what about the animation? It's cheap. All of the mech fighting takes place with 3D CG, with none of the fights actually...look like fights. In fact, all of the battle taking place seem more like the mech and enemies are dancing with each other which would be interesting if it wasn't for the fact that “battle dancing” was done better in other places (From what I've experienced, with P.N. 03 and Monty's work on Red VS. Blue and RWBY). Then there's also the fact that it had nothing to do with “3D animation being a new thing” as Macross Zero (Another not particularly good series) was actually quite beautiful to watch with it's 3D animated mech fights. But, then again, there's more to the show than 3D animation right? Well, the 2D animation is serviceable, with noticeable errors such as the fact that characters at a distance seem to be lacking detail like the animation department was running everything through the Unreal game engine. And the further into the series your get, you realize that they seem to be changing up the art style in every episode, as if they're constantly blowing through their animators. Other shows tend to have some animations teams cycle on throughout the series (Perhaps to gave the animators a break), but everything stays consistent to an extent where you won't see much of a difference outside of a frame or two and if you're really looking. Genesis Of Aquarion, however, starts becoming as consistent with it's art style as Steven Universe is consistent with it's character models. This is not saying that the changes are bad (Until the recent episode), but I honestly wonder why I should put more effort in seeing this through to the end when it seems like the people animating this put in even less effort making it all flow from one episode to the next.

Now, to talk about the audio, the one good thing about the show. Just go look up Akino's Lost in Time album, and you'll save yourself from a whole lot of trouble.

If I have not made it more apparent, I would no recommend Genesis Of Aquarion to anyone. Even other series that I consider to be terrible (Such as Aim for the Top! Gunbuster, Macross Zero, even Martian Successor Nadesico) I would doubtlessly recommend over this. You have too little time in life to waste it trying to slog through the 26 episodes his series has to offer. Even you yaoi fangirls can certainly find something much better worth watching. That clip I saw of the The Space Between anime certainly seemed interesting.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I'm here to talk about three series that I recently finished.

The first one is Ayane's High Kick. It's a simple two episode series about a protagonist who wants to become a professional wrestler, but is duped into becoming a kickboxer. That's, at least, the first episode. The second one just about her being forced into the profession and her actually pondering on the idea if she still wants to continue to be a wrestler. And that's where it ends, very sadly. The second episode ended with a detailing of the upcoming, but never produced, third episode that would have expanded the story further and I really wish it had. I liked the fact that majority of the show was actually about Ayane training for her fights and how she's trying to balance her personal life with becoming a kickboxer, with the fights at the end of both episode feeling like a pay-off to all the struggle you see her going through. However, with that being said, the show doesn't end up leaving you with a blue-ball feeling (Like Ninja Resurrection did) as each episode is “complete” in itself but still leaving something there to be expanded upon. As for as the animation, it's all the 90's goodness with animations that do make you excited for the fights taking place. Overall, I would recommend Ayane's High Kick to anyone who's interested in a simple sports series. Though, I wonder if the manga is just a retelling of the anime or if it wraps some things up (Considering that it was produced a few months after the second episode, probably the latter).

The second one is Magic Users Club. The premise of that series is that an alien probe has landed on Earth and is assessing the viability of possibly invading it. However the probe actually does nothing except scan the actions of people all day, and humanity goes about living their daily lives; except for the members of the magic club where the president thinks that the invaders are here for something much more sinister. That's, at least, the setup for the series with the rest of it being more about the club members learning about how to use magic while the probe is trying to understand what is going on. It's all a really cute series with how the story unfolds and it doesn't really waste it's time with much filler. Each event flows right into the next episode, leaving the viewer to fully understand all the antics taking place. Like Ayane, Magic Users Club uses the similar cartoonish style used by many other 90's series, however the art focuses more on the characters looking “cute” rather than the series having any real action. And, that's on top of the fact that the music gives the series a more mellow and sweet vibe to it all. Overall, Magic Users Club is another fun series that I would recommend to anyone interested. However, I am curious as to where the TV series picks up since it seems like the “main threat” is now gone.

Now, to talk the last series, it is Virgin Fleet. The premise that that the Russo-Japanese War never actually concluded and only came to end due to a “cease-fire” agreement brought about due to the Japanese military's discovery and immediate usage of “Virgin Energy”. Since then, 15 years have passed with the Japanese military training young virgin girls to harness their power, all the while the Japanese and Russian militaries are playing political games of being friends but ultimately waiting to see who's going to be the first one to pull the trigger and restart the war. Despite the title, the series isn't actually sexual in nature at all and takes itself much more seriously in the fact that there's the looming possibility of war breaking out at any moment. And the three “main” protagonists do become confronted with the fact that, despite being just kids, they are required to become soldiers due to the nature of their power. Aside from leading up to the possibility of a war, the other “plot” of the series is the MAIN main protagonist having to come to the decision of if she wants to get married to her fiance or become a soldier, and this brings out a “cuter” part of the series that alleviates some of the pressure with how mature the rest of the show unfolds. All that being said, the story does develop in a matter like it feels like the writers were intending to build up to something bigger (Which leads me to assume that the OVA was made as a promo for the PlayStation game), but it does end on a note where the story can end there and the viewer can walk away satisfied. As far as the animation, it's much more developed and active than either of the previous series that I mention in this post, though I did find the art style to be more off-putting. Also, it was actually rather nice to see a flight-based series that didn't rely on 3D animation. And, as for the audio, the series is rather silent a lot of the time with most of the music kicking in for the joke and emotional scenes. Overall, Virgin Fleet is another series that I would very much recommend to anyone interested. I just look forward to seeing where the game picks up with the story.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

Finished off two series this week.

The first one is Angel Cop. The premise of the series is that Japan has become the leader in the world economy, which has upset some very powerful people who seek to turn country into another puppet government or make it a desolate wasteland. To prevent this, the Japanese government has created an anti-terrorist organization call the the S.S.F. who are above all other organizations with the additional bonus of a license to kill. However, the S.S.F. are now on the run as it looks like someone else is pulling the strings. To explain the actual structure of the plot, it's a predictable conspiracy story that you can see coming from a few blocks away if you've paid moderate attention to world politics over the past 30-50 years (If you haven't, let's just say that things started back in 330 B.C., arguable 2340 B.C., and you can piece everything together from there). However, with that being said, it does feel like the series is rushing itself quite a bit, and feels like something was lost along the way. For example, the "main" protaginst of the series, the cold-blooded bitch Angel, goes from leaving her wounded partner behind in the first episode to actually caring about her comrades when they're dying left and right towards the end of the series (When the actual story itself just unfolds over the course of a couple days). Then, there's also the fact that once the series actually "ends", it feels like nothing was resolved and the actual end message is "Nothing was changed, Japan was lost,"; which leaves me confused in several different ways because I'm trying to understand if the writers were trying to make a political statement about Japan's place in the modern world or if they just ran out of time and figured "Hey, it's an ending" (Or maybe both, or perhaps the manga picks things up and resolves the plot). Anyway, the other thing that frustrates me about this type ending is that I've seen it done better in other places such as Blue Drop and Armitage III; where the former series ended with actually showing what the distant outcome of the anime's events was (However, I will forever say it is one of the worst endings I have ever seen, and still leaves me fuming to this day); and the latter ended with both of the main characters not being able to stop anything, but still riding off into the sunset once everything is over. In fact, Angel Cop reminds me of several different series, but I'll get to that in a moment.

The animation for the series is another aspect that I found to be a mixed bag because it flip flops between scenes being animated with as few frames as possible and some damn beautiful animation that shows exactly why digital can compete but never be able to match actual hand drawn animation. It can be argued that it's so that the studio doesn't go over the budget, but it's jarring as Hell to go from beautiful fight scenes to almost snapshot dialogue scenes. However, I didn't care for the overly-detailed art style they went with because it does some of the characters look very alien in appearance. Then there's the music, which is rather nice to listen to, that goes between someone laying on the piano keys to a sort-of soft rock.

Now, to get the main issue that I was having out of the way, it feels like everything that Angel Cop has to offer, I have seen elsewhere in other series (And done better). MD Geist, Ghost in the Shell, Armitage III, Mach Rider, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance; in fact, jumping off of that, Angel actually does remind me Major an awful lot when it comes to her designs, and then there's where another main character (Raiden) literally becomes a cyborg with a motorcycle. I wouldn't be that surprised if Angel Cop did have an influence on the development of some Japanese media (Like Future Boy Conan on Miyazaki Hayao's works, Go Nagai when it comes to the mahou shoujo and mecha genres and "the devil in me" stories, Tezuka Osamu when it came to kemono and moe), but, looking into it further, it looks like the reverse may have happened. MD Geist, Ghost in the Shell, and Mach Rider all came out before Angel Cop; which makes me wonder if it's ripping off of those instead of the other way around.

Also, to address the fact that many releases of this series is censored (Because, of course, any Japanese media that doesn't 100% agree with Western ideals is censored):

1. When will people get over the fact that when there's a negative reference to a group, and that reference is not in any favorable light, and that reference seems to reinforce a negative stereotype that people keep trying to say isn't true only to be proven wrong more often than not, perhaps there's something wrong with that that group (Itself) that should be addressed. And, that should be the main issue to the people in that group that they should attempt to be solving rather than trying to play it off as "unbiased prejudice" and continue it act like the scum that people go after them for being.

2. Just because a form of media rightfully calls out people for doing wrong and putting them in their place, that does not mean that the media, itself, is good. Loki's speech to the other Gods only worked because he was drunk and angry about how he's always punished while the other Gods can get off with much worse. Mercutio's rant only worked because the guy realize that he devoted his life and died because of a family feud that started over God knows what. Having a character pulling the same thing when they're in a sober state of mind and trying to make a statement without any sense of irony is NOT good writing. It's preaching, pure and simple.

Anyways, Angel Cop is a good series, but I have a hard time recommending it. Like I said, it feels like much of the series' material was done better in the other media that I mentioned earlier, and the actual quality of the show itself is much of a mixed bagged. If you're looking for a good conspiracy story, you can certainly do much worse, but Angel Cop will leave a feeling of wanting something more.

The second series that I want to talk about is Patlabor. The premise of the series is that the world is rapidly advancing in growth and expansion, which has given rise to the use of mechs to help with construction (Referred to as “Labors”). However, with this, this has also resulted in crimes starting to be used in conjunction with the robots. This has prompted the police to create a “Special Vehicles” unit to start specifically combating these crimes, with the series focusing on the members of the newly creates second division of the unit. To get something out of the way, this is not you're standard mecha series with action taking place every episode as the show comes off like it's trying to play off more as a police series. But, even then, I feel hesitant to describe the series like that. The first two episodes are do feel like actual police work, then you have two episodes of what amounts to filler, and, then, the last three episodes start touching upon dealing with mechs designed for military use. And, my main problem with this is that it I wanted to see more of the actual police work. I did like seeing how they initially slowed down and stepped away from trying to be “just another mech series”, but then it doesn't really feel like anything was actually done with it. However, with that being said, I wonder if my expectations where influenced about how the first couple episodes of Patlabor reminded me of my experience with Rail Wars!. Where I thought that was going to be a comfy train conductor series, only for the veil to be thrown off and reveal the series being about public safety enforcement.

The animation for the series has a more cartoon feel, especially I comparison to Angel Cop, and is actually a very smooth series to watch. There really isn't point in the series that I can point to where studio actually did cut corners in order to meet the budget. And, that's on top of how I really like the colorful pallet that the series used. Overall, I did enjoy, and would recommend, Patlabor, but I have a hard time saying that I actually liked it. It's possible the rebooted TV series, or films serving as a follow-up to the OVA, scratch that itch, but it the original series feels like it falls short of what it was trying to do.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I just finished of the series Tekkaman and I didn't even know it.

The premise of the series is that WW3, and China, screwed up the Earth to the point that they only have 3 years left until the Earth is completely uninhabitable. And, the “top scientists” on the planet decide that the only solution is to search for a “Second Earth” somewhere out there in space. Except, humanity doesn't have the technology to actually go space-trekking outside of the solar system, so they have to develop the tech to actually go out and find that second Earth. And, for some reason, an alien alliance, called the Wildaster, want to invade Earth without waiting for the three years to pass and for humanity to die out. However, to stop this invasion, the U.N. space program create a secret patrol unit called the “Space Knights” with the leader, Joji, able to turn into the “invincible Tekkaman”. The rest of the series unfolds with each episode focusing on a each of the different approaches that the Wildaster take to invade and conquer Earth, with Rambos (The general of the forces, but not the leader of the aliens) focusing more and more of his sights on just being able to defeat Tekkaman. The plot of the series progresses where some of dramatics and events do feel rather silly, but none of it comes off as childish. In fact, it's almost unintentionally surreal with how (One example) an episode can start off with talking about how Earth children are making friends with robotic-talking space bugs only for things to escalate to where the cities on Earth are being terrorized by said bugs by literally frying every single person on screen. Then, there's also the fact that Joji's actual transformation into the Tekkaman seems like a rather painful process when you see it in full, and things just go on from there. Outside of it's silly moments, the series does have some idea of what it's trying to do, with Joji wanting to get revenge for the death of his dad, Andro (One of the Space Knghts and an alien fighting against the Wildaster) longing for the return to him home planet, the various groups on Earth increasingly panicking over how everything is going to die and the possibility of searching for a new home. And, it really does start building up on this towards the end of the series, however, according to ANN, the series wasn't doing too well in Japan, which resulted in it getting canceled half-way through with only 26 episodes being made. And, the last episode being left on such a simple cliffhanger that it's really surprising that an OVA or film was released to rap things up, with the only later acknowledgments of Tekkaman being the spin-off Tekkaman Blade that was made 17 years later and the video games Tatsunoko Fight and Tatsunoko VS Capcom.

As for the animation of the series, it's “primitive” in design with a lot of stills and recycled animation, however none of it is actually bad. The art style leans on a more “stylized realism” manner with the world being the scientific future according to the 60's/70's (Before computers really took off, anyone remember punch cards and ticker tapes?). And, as for as the audio, it switches between the same six different tracks that are all used for the same situations. And, the full orchestra music (Even to the end of the series) still results in me expecting to see an episode of Scooby Doo coming on instead of a semi-serious space hero show. However, there's seems to be something about it all coming together that just adds to the charm.

Overall, Tekkaman is a good series (For it's time, and I hate to use that phrase because a product can be good regardless of when it was made). It's a simple “superhero” series with good guys and bad guys and they don't do anything to be subversive or innovative, they did it just because they think it melds with the story. However, I feel like this is a hard series to recommend because of the fact that it's so...”primitive” (For lack of a better word). Outside of wanting to see where things started (If you're a “media history buff”), there's little reason to go back and watch this series if you're looking for something of actual quality. Even the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Future Boy Conan (Both series made a couple years later) are “better” series in terms of quality. However, if you want something just goes “back to the basics”, there's really nowhere else to look than at series like Tekkaman. And, given the fact that I'm tired of how everything in recent years is trying to reinvent the wheel or show how "self-aware" they are, I guess I really like the fact that there's always stuff out there (That I haven't seen) that isn't.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

Finished off the Wolverine anime, and it's an okay series.

The plot is that Logan's girlfriend is kidnapped and, after a year of searching, he finally finds out that she's in Japan and is being married off to owner of Madripoor Island (The center for all crime in Asia) so that her yakuza father can expand his empire. And, the rest of the series unfolds with expanding this simple plot over 12 episodes and dealing with all the different enemies and “allies” that Logan meets along the way that have their own interests in the game being played. In some way, it feels like the series delivers with everything you'd expect from a plot like that, but it's also a little bit underwhelming. For example, the beginning of the starts out with Logan being framed for killing one of his cop friends, but that point mostly solves itself once he gets out of Tokyo. Then there's the “bigger” issue where Madripoor is in a power struggle, with none of the fractions really being worthy of controlling the island, that mostly solves itself as well. In fact summing it up like that, the reason the plot doesn't feel fully delivered is that Logan doesn't actually feel that important to the story going on. All the characters use Logan to further their own interests, but everything still results in the events taking place had he not been involved at all. And, it probably doesn't help that his girlfriend doesn't actually feel at all resistant about the forced marriage until the last episode, with her being submissive the entire way. So, when you boil it down, the isn't even that interesting to talk about, which is quote a bit of a letdown due to how much I praised and enjoyed the Iron Man anime.

As for the animation of the series it is nicely made. The art style is rather attractive to watch, but some of the earlier in the fights in the series look a little silly with how little “activity” they depict. And, part of the silliness has to do with much of the music being guitar and drums filling most of the episodes and depicting a highly active fight.

Overall, I did enjoy the Wolverine anime, but I would not really recommend it. If you want something that is nothing BUT literal action, you may find it more enjoyable than I, but I didn't really care for how it starts out as filler and then tries to wrap everything up as quickly as it can towards the end.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I just finished off Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. And, it was a rather fun and relaxing series.

The premise is that long after the events of Go Nagai's Salacia, humans have returned to the surface of Earth and now live on one of seven floating cities. The main character, Maia, after failing her life goal of joining the Ocean Agency (Basically, their U.N.), gets involved in a hostage situation that ends with her joining the Nereids company, a group that does odd jobs and are guns-for-hire. As for how the series progresses, it's all rather relaxing to watch all the shenanigans that take place with the group and all the different adventures that the go on while completing their work. In comparison to other series that I have watched, it's exactly what I expected Patlabor to be (With it ramping things up towards the end), while not being as “hi octane” as Rail Wars!. The animation actually is rather nice to watch with none of it really cheapening out anywhere. And, the music gives the series a bit of a “Pacific Ocean” feel to it. Overall, I would highly recommend Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, as it's a great series all around.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I finished off Kachou Ouji: Hard Rock Save The Space, which was something different.

The premise of the series is that Oujii is the former lead guitarist for the band Black Heaven, but now lives his life as a regular wage-slave with no real goals or ambitions. That is, until the guy is visited by aliens who demands that he plays for them as the sound he makes with his guitar is the "power source" needed for their ultimate weapon. And, so begins Ouji's life of moonlighting as a battery, meanwhile proceeding to "unfuck his shit up" in regards to his regular. I actually found the direction to be quite unexpected (Because, when I initially read the plot, I expected something along the lines of [url=https://infogalactic.com/info/Bill_%26_Ted's_Excellent_Adventure]Bill & Ted[/url] or Airheads), but I feels like the series starts heading in a slightly different direction about halfway through. That is, it was still enjoyable, but while the series started with the guy trying to rebuild his marriage and just realizing how much life he had missed, latter half sort of side-steps that with him rebuilding his band with the actual series conclusion feeling like nothing has really changed in the long run. As far as the animation, it's okay with the music performances looking like something out of a cheap music video. And the audio does set up the series to have a more comedic feel to it while the events are unfolding.

Overall, I would recommend Kachou Ouji: Hard Rock Save The Space as a good series to watch if you a show that goes in a different direction, but it left me with a wanting to see a series of where a guy does proceed to go all the way in just fixing up his life.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I just finished off Super Dimension Century Orguss, and, overall, it's a pretty lame series.

The premise is that, in the far future, an interdimensional bomb is detonated by a terrorist group at the site of the literal elevator to space and screws up Earth by making it a patchwork of different eras and realities that's constantly changing. Why they do this no one knows because, after failing to defuse the bomb, Kei, the series' protagonist, is transported to 20 years in the future, where the planet is at war between the three factions that have risen to power: The Chilam (Humans), the Emaan (A race of space gypsies), and the Muu (A race of robots). And, they all want to get their hands on Kei because he's the Tokuiten (The singularity) who can fix the planet before they all die from global warming. Leave any and all expectations for some intriguing war drama at the door because this series is a soap opera through and through. Kei, himself, is the definition of what Patlabor was making a gag about when was talking about delinquent anime mech pilots, with the story progressing in a reverse manner to how Nadesico went. In the first third of the series, you have the relationship drama where Kei is wooing some guy's fiance, only for the guy to NEVER man up about it and ends up dying like a bitch, to where everyone is sad for a moment and then moves on. The middle third really shoves in the concept of there being some internal conflicts to where several of the factions are infighting because they all want to use Kei for their own purposes, but then it all falls apart in the third act with that being pushed on the sidelines to where Kei is sleeping with the ex-fiance all the while he has to deal with the fact that now he has a 20 year-old daughter who grew up while he was stuck in limbo. Also, you remember that comment I made about how I was furious with Genesis of Aquarion for the fact that all the characters were basically emotional and never told to get a grip? Yeah, Orguss takes that concept and ramps it up to 11 because it's more that Kei is downright irresponsible with his action at times. And everyone just accepts it because “He's the singularity, we have to let him do what he wants”. However, to break-away from talking about how bullshit the protagonist is, and how he walks all over everyone, let's talk about the other characters. You have Kei's old friend who is also a Tokuiten who appeared a decade prior and gets tired of Kei's shit, you have the robot loli who fawns of Kei and gets tired of his shit, there's Kei's 20 year-old daughter who gets tired of his shit, you have the the talking dinosaur who's a side attraction, you have the old fart who's the stereotype of a gypsy, you have the leader of the ship who's running away from responsibilities, you have the twins that exist, you have a old military robot that's lazy, you have a scientist that doesn't become important until later, you have the single mother taking care of her twin infants, and I think I got everyone worth noting.

As far as the animation, it's all over the place. It's decent most of the time, late episodes to have better animation in some parts, but there's nothing really interesting about it. The audio is okay, OST has the same five tracks, and don't know what else to say about that.

Overall, Super Dimension Century Orguss isn't really that good of a series and I can't see myself recommending it for any reason. It's not good, it's not bad, it's not even average, it's just...lame.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

Kimetsu no Yaiba Yes, I've finished it, right now. to be honest, It's overrated yes, it is. Kimetsu no Yaiba's Plot about Demon Slayers-Demons and their fights. Yes it's visual is great, yes it's effects are great, yes it's color palette's is good. Story telling is meh, you know it's usual shounen as always. If you've time for kill then watch it.

The other day I found out about and binge read Spirit Circle and I was blown away by how good it was AND it was extremely satisfying to be able to read a full completed story at my own pace.

So, I decided to drop UFO Senshi Dai Apolon after 17 episodes. It's not a bad series, it's okay, but I just grew bored with the show.

The premise is that Takeshi is the prince of a planet that was conquered by the Dazaan Army, and was sent to Earth as a baby in order to ensure his survival. He then grows up in an orphanage, and gains a passion for American football while living there. Then, on his 16th birthday, he is struck by a meteor that imbues him with the Key Energy power that his planet's people had developed as their "ultimate weapon". Takeshi and his friends are then abducted by his guardian, Rabi, who informs him of his origin and gives him and his friends a giant robot, Dai Apolon, and several UFOs in order to fight off the Dazaan Army and protect the Key Energy that now reside within Takeshi. The rest of the series then details the Dazaan Army's various attempts to gain the Key Energy along with trying to figure out the true identity Dai Apolon's pilot. The series boils down to three different episode were something effects the "UFO Boy Scouts" on a personal level, some outsider gets involved in the fights, or the leaders of the Dazaan Army are trying out one of their various "just created" super-weapons to defeat Dai Apolon.

It's pretty formulaic, and it just feels like an attempt to sell toys. There are some moments in the series were it does decide to get a little bit more "mature" with it's premise as innocent people are dying during some of the episodes, but it feels like it's there just to be there and show how "evil" the villains are (As if mass genocide and enslavement across the galaxy wasn't reason enough). And, the show never really moves beyond that. There are a few times were the Dazaans do some espionage and end up kidnapping the wrong people thinking they have times to Dai Apolon, along with some general rivalries and tensions taking place within the various generals of the Dazaan Army, but it never really moves beyond that or does anything unique with it.

As for the animation, the art is fine but the show feels very stilted and limited in it's animation. And, with the audio, there really isn't much music to speak of, the sound effects are great, but all the voices sound like the characters are always shouting no matter what they say.

Overall, I wasn't really that impressed with UFO Senshi Dai Apolon. Like I said, it isn't a bad series, but I just grew too bored with it to the point that I didn't care about finishing it off.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

Just finished off Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, and I have one important question:

WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF ALL THAT?!? You know, screw this, [color=red]DON'T READ THIS FUCKING POST IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS, I'M NOT GOING TO HIDE OR CENSOR HOW BULLSHIT THIS IS![/color]

The premise of the series is that, a couple years after the ending of the previous series (Rage of Bahamut GENESIS), the human government finds out that all the efforts of the previous series (Of all the Gods, Demons, and Humans uniting together so that they don't die) to seal Bahamut away for good was futile as Bahamut is far stronger and is going to escape. They find this information out through scacred away texts that they found hidden away in the castle, and were only found due to the human king's palace pretty much being destroyed. In the same texts, they found out that there are also ancient WMDs that are laying around that could match the might and possibly defeat Bahamut forever. However, the remainder of this information is sealed away in Heaven and Hell. And, they do confirm the fact that Bahamut will return. Are you with me so far?

SO, in order to prevent the apocalypse from happening, the last remaining heir of the human monarchy who was just placed on the throne with his cabinet staffed all with experiences people that are aware of the fact that they are working on the clock to prevent the destruction of everything in existence, they all universally decide that the smartest thing to do is...attack Heaven and Hell, kill their leaders and most of their populace, ensalve the survivors, dance on their graves, and proclaim that “Humanity is #1!” (And, possibly raid the library for more information on these WMDs and ways to kill Bahamut,...if they have any free time during all of that,...if they can be asked). OH and proceed to sit on their asses for the next five years, rebuilding everything off of slave labor that's intentionally cruel just so that they can be cruel, watch gladiator battles, imprison all who oppose them, and NEVER feel the need to make anyone outside of their small circle aware of the fact that the monster who almost destroyed the world is coming back and they are taking measures to prevent it.

But, wait, it gets better. During the final months before Bahamut is released, a half-dragon girl (Nina, the protagonist of this story) comes to the capital to earn money that she can send home (Like the filthy, cute, immigrant that she is), and gets involved with the city's dissidents who all correctly come to the conclusion that the king is a cruel asshole who needs to be overthrown. And, the reason they get her involved is because she can turn into a powerful dragon, but only when she let's her bishie fantasies get out of control. Oh, and she catches the “heart” of the king while he's running around the city disguised as a merchant. Anyways, she get's involved in a couple of these, first with a demon revolt that fails and results in her getting imprisoned (Along with all of the characters in the previous series, who were also imprisoned at some point, finally getting the chance to catch-up about their past decade of adventures), and the second time as a bystander to the humans aggressively telling the Gods to “Fuck off” by firing the Schwerer Gustav that they unearthed. Yes, there is some political drama that takes place during all this, but it all becomes pointless in the grand scheme of things. The first half of the series actually does sort-of justify the humans kicking the Gods and Demons to the curb, the former because of their entitlement that humans are suppose to serve and worship them and the latter because of them being the cause of the mess in the first series. And, it can be discussed all day about whether or not the humans were actually justified in attacking the capitals of the other two races, and/or needing to kill their leaders. But, all the discussion is meaningless because the entire reason why the humans attacked their capitals was because they wanted more information on how to kill Bahamut with those WMDs, and they never figured that (Perhaps) ASKING the Gods and Demons for that information would result in anything when everyone suffered heavy losses the previous time that thing was released.

Continuing on with the summary of the series, people die, alliances are formed, one thing leads to another, and the Gods and Demons team up to storm the human capital and overthrow the king (Along with humans that finally realize the fact that the king is an asshole, but think that the Gods are somehow better despite also being assholes). And, all the while that's taking place, the king finally unleashes Bahamut so that he can kill it. He leads it to the capital just as his troops stationed there to protect the city are about to fall, everyone realizes that the destroyer is back, the Gods and Demons drop everything so that they don't die, and the king fires the Schwerer Gustav (With Nina and the power of love). They seemingly kill it (Before it fades away several weeks later, revealing that ALL of this shit was pointless), and everything is okay, and everyone lives happily every after. No punishments or closure for any of the shit that happened over the past five years, “No one's ever really gone” despite the framing that some of the characters are gone, and nothing was learned or gained.

Nothing changed.

As for the animation, the 2D art was rather appealing unless they showed the characters from a distance, and all the 3D animation and models that they used looked out of place. And, the audio was nice.

Overall, I'm just so damn disappointed with the entire thing. I remember liking the previous series a lot, but this was just downright infuriating to watch as the only reason all this shit happened is because the king was an idiot who wants to keep the entire thing to himself for God knows why. And, even after knowing that Nina and her friends were the source of the troubles in the capital, he never wants to reveal to them WHY he's been such a cruel, unlikable, bastard, despite any of the help they could provide. Hell, I would have even found his actions somewhat justifiable if he DID warn Heaven and Hell about Bahamuts return and they just blew it off. Just a simple throw-away line about how, “I warned you about this, and you didn't listen,” and I wouldn't be nearly are upset with the series as I am. It's just terrible writing and pointless drama stretched out across 24 episodes. There's no reason to watch Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul. The only reason it exists is to anger anyone who thinks about it.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]

So, I just finished off Renkin 3 Kyuu Magical? Pokaan, and it is a very enjoyable series.

The premise is that four princesses from a world of monsters are transported to Japan, and the show is just about their daily lives living on Earth. Nothing else more complex, and let me show you the door if you have a problem with that. The show is extremely laid back, and it's just fun and hilarious to watch the girls living life with little to no problems. The animation for the show is simple and silly to fit with the nature of the stories. And, the audio gives the show this extremely comfy feel. Overall, I would recommend this series to just about anyone who wants a relaxing show or just wants to be entertained. While extremely simple, I'd say it's one of the best anime out there.

[img]http://www.dragonflycave.com/wpay/mew.gif[/img]