Bob’s Plain ‘ol Blog

From the same original creator as Bakemonogatari, Katanagatari is a show with a rather interesting release schedule and premise. It follows a quest to retrieve 12 legendary swords, with one sword per episode (presumably- though there were several swords shown together so there may be some arcs to retrieve sets of them…) for a total of 12 episodes- each released (generally- there’s only 2 weeks between ep. 1 & 2) a month apart.
Read the rest of this entry »

The first three episodes of all of the series that I’ve been trying to follow have now aired, so I’ve got updated thoughts on them after they’ve had the chance to somewhat settle into where they’re going to fall.
Read the rest of this entry »

Of the surprisingly many things accomplished today (despite getting up far later than ideal), I finished off the last of the series that concluded in the Fall ‘09 anime season: Nyan Koi!. At its core, Nyan Koi! was pretty standard harem-show fare, but it had enough unique about it- primarily the element of the cats- that still made it a lot of fun to watch. It was also amusing for the fun they had with seiyuu- honestly, without having looked at the cast list I wouldn’t have known that Fukuyama Jun played the parts that he did, and Tomatsu Haruka was great in the dual (but very different) roles of the twins. Unfortunately like altogether too many of the harem shows I’ve seen over the years, I found the apparently inevitable destined girl for the lead to be probably my least favorite- and as usual, the Osana Najimi (childhood friend) was one of my favorites (though the twin-tailed twins- one solidly a tsundere and the other, well, would be more at home in Zetsubou Sensei’s classroom- were also a riot). It wasn’t anything groundbreaking or outstanding, but it was still a fun show to watch. If they do end up making a second season (the final after-episode segment joked about it) I’ll probably end up watching it and hoping that it breaks the mould and the lead ends up with someone unexpected.

So, it’s pretty much a given I’ll be watching Hoshimitsu, Hanamaru, and Sora no Woto, but there were a few others that looked interesting and I figured I would give a shot and see if they were worth trying to find the time to watch as well once I’ve caught up on things from last season. What I found was something of a mixed bag…

Read the rest of this entry »

So, with the weather outside being fairly frightful (at least for this part of the country…) for the last week or so and my unable to work out in the garage on the RX-7 like I need to, I’ve had more time than I’ve had in a long time to watch anime, so have been both catching up on stuff from last season as well as checking out things starting up this season that looked interesting. Unfortunately I’m still a ways behind, but at least I’ve largely caught up on things that I really count as mattering such that I don’t feel bad about starting the new shows from this season.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, anyone really paying attention *crickets chirp* may have noticed that despite it being well into the second week of the Fall 2009 anime season that I’ve posted neither my Summer 2009 wrap-up or my Fall 2009 first looks. Both are somewhat related- they’ve not been posted because I’m a modest ways behind in my watching of stuff. The combination of Tsubasacon last weekend, some delays in shows being posted and other ‘distractions’ (most specifically my girlfriend, Kristin…) have meant that I’ve just simply not had the time lately to watch as much- and given that Kristin does not look to be any less of a distraction in the foreseeable future (note: this is not a complaint by any stretch… ) and I really should be buckling down and working more seriously on the DeLorean, this doesn’t look to be a situation that will be particularly temporary.

So, what does this mean? I will still be doing my Summer wrap-up- it’s pretty much written anyway with the exception of the two series that were straggling behind in releases, and I should have it up sometime this weekend. My fall 2009 look-ahead… well, I might end up posting what I’ve got written up so far, but I’ve dropped any pretense of hoping to do what I’ve done in the past with watching the first episode of everything and then paring things down from there. I’ve watched the first episode of everything that I really thought was going to be interesting, and what remains really didn’t grab me that much for me to worry about missing out on anything. If there’s anything that’s a complete sleeper like Ga-Rei: Zero was, I’m sure I’ll hear about it and check it out.

So, it looks like I’ll be trying to watch the following consistently:

Nogizaka Haruka 2
Railgun
Umineko
Cross Game
Nyan Koi!
Sacred Blacksmith will probably also be in this class, but if I need to let one slip, it’ll be what falls behind

If I have a lot more time than I’m thinking I will, I may try and follow Seitokai no Ichizon & Sora no Otoshimono as I rather enjoyed the first episodes of both.

So, for anyone who was counting on me doing a really in-depth analysis of all the shows this season, I’m sorry!

The Summer season is nearly over, and with it a whoooole mess of shows that I’ve been following. I expect to be following a LOT less shows in the Fall season, but as usual I will be watching the first episodes of almost everything and posting my thoughts on them. Since there’s a few very solid locks, I’ll put those ahead of the rest. It’s also worth making note of the fact that although they’ve not actually released what the titles will be, roughly half of the new anime airing in the Fall will be simulcast on CrunchyRoll- they’re really getting up there in their acquisitions this time. There’s a much higher than usual chance that I’m only going to follow the two continuing series from this season and the two sequels that are dead locks- I really doubt I’ll have the time for much more than that…

Read the rest of this entry »

This last weekend, at least in part due to needing to be someplace much lighter (er, perhaps a poor choice of words…) on the light pollution to be able to do a decent test of the astronomy/stargazing apps for this week’s Appcast, I packed up Hotaru and headed down to one of Kentucky’s many state parks to go camping for the weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

When you ask anime fans to name directors, the first person that probably comes to mind is Hayao Miyazaki. Not too far down most people’s lists though would be Mamoru Oshii. Well known for more introspective and psychological movies, Oshii has a long and impressive directorial history of making movies that are beautiful and lyrical but tend to be a bit too philosophical and introspective for my tastes. The Sky Crawlers is no exception to that description, at least as far as I’m concerned… Read the rest of this entry »

So, things have by and large settled down as far as what I’m following (or trying to…) or dropping this season and we’re 3 episodes or so in on most shows, so I figure it would be good to do a bit of an update along with some thoughts on them.

Read the rest of this entry »