By super rats on June 2, 2010
Strike Witches feels a lot like one of my all time favorite anime, Battle Athletes Victory. There’s similarities, a convenient excuse for teenage girls to be the only hope for mankind, an international cast of characters, aliens, the dead parent of the clueless main character as a central figure, and the girls in Battle Athletes Victory were almost as allergic to pants as the Strike Witches. Also, both shows are ridiculous in a good way. Ten years separates the two shows and it’s kind of fun encountering similarities and seeing differences between them as far as characters go, such as the stereotypes that persist or have fallen off.
Continue reading “Girls, Guns, Propellers and…”
Posted in Anime | Tagged action, fan-service, girls and guns, Gonzo, sci-fi, Strike Witches
By super rats on April 8, 2010
The figure collection now has 20% more pants, thanks to Iori Minase who has kept watch over my cluttered desk over the last month or so. It was an ebay purchase since she was out of stock wherever I looked, so she may or may not be legit. The box had a hologram sticker and the seller was in Japan, so I’m leaning toward the side that Iori here is fine, but when buying outside of a reputable store, you never really know. Still, I wanted Iori with her sparkly gold outfit and she’s out of production, so I bit.
Continue reading “Iori Minase And The Annual Metablog”
Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1:8-scale, anime figures, Idolmaster, MegaHouse, pants, ribbon
By super rats on April 6, 2010
It takes a while for Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha to get going. The first six episodes left me bored, wondering how and why this show is notable enough to still be talked about. Also, given the number of amazing figures made for the franchise, I expected a higher level of visual appeal. The character models don’t stand out and seem clunky now that I see them animated, like why does every single person have that crazy bed-head thing on one side of their head?
Of course, I heard it would pick up a few episodes after Fate shows up, just I wasn’t expecting to be so disinterested during the first six episodes. The viewing experience was a tainted one, moreso than just about any internet-popular show that aired over the last handful of years. The it’s magical-girls-for-men, it’s mech, it should be blamed for something, appealing to those afraid, uncomfortable, or rejecting masculinity or real women, etc., etc. At least all of that meta made sitting through the first half of the series less of a drag to get through. During the first episode, I kept wondering how was this a magical-girl-show-for-men? This wasn’t sleazy or full of awesome fights, but then around the 18-minute mark, a high wind and a low camera angle blows the cover off. Okay, but why wait so long to reveal the true colors of the show?
I can see why Fate is a popular character. She gives Nanoha a target for her Nanoha-ness and opens up the good fights. Really, it’s difficult to not find some affection and/or camaraderie for Fate given her issues. I thought this affection or at least understanding sets up they key moment of the series, Nanoha unleashing the Starlight Breaker on Fate. That’s the moment that made watching the series worthwhile to me. I didn’t care for much in the show before or after the Starlight Breaker attack, but I felt it was a great moment.
Anyway, I hear Nanoha A’s is much better, so I’ll probably check that out sometime.
Posted in Anime | Tagged magical-girl, moe, Nanoha
By super rats on March 13, 2010
It’s raining today, nasty and crooked. Normally, Saturday is a real busy day, but I don’t actually have anything to do, except toss some clothes in the laundry and watch some college hoops, seeing a couple of teams trying to make their case to the selection committee. Cleaning up this place is a possibility, but why not waste some time instead? The camera still had a charge so it was a good time to take some shots of a figure I’ve had for a long while, Kotone Ousaka from Native, sculpted by Chieri, based off a Tony Taka illustration.
(This is an ecchi/NSFW figure review).
Continue reading “Saturday Afternoon With Native Girl Kotone Ousaka (NSFW)”
Posted in Figure Review | Tagged 1:7-scale, ahoge, anime figures, cast-off, Chieri, diorama base, ecchi, Max Factory, Native, swimsuit, Tony Taka
By super rats on March 9, 2010
Producer Masahiko Minami and director Masahiro Ando of studio Bones created Sword of the Stranger as a desire to show the strengths of hand drawn animation in an action film. This is a particularly interesting goal to put forth considering hand drawn animation shrinks in relevance every year. Advances in technology have rapidly eaten up one of the strengths that traditional 2D animation had over “live action” — the ability to create its own seamless reality. This desire to show-off traditional power also sounds like a shout for relevance within the entertainment industry, what with the most talented young blood flocking to video games instead of sweating away at a traditional animation studio. Even for those new talents for who the money is a secondary motivator, the toys they could play with in the video game industry while being a creator must be a massive tractor beam ripping talent away from traditional animation.
Continue reading “Sword of the Stranger and 2D Power”
Posted in Anime | Tagged action, Bandai Entertainment, Blu-Ray, Bones, movie, Ocean Studios, Sword of the Stranger
By super rats on March 5, 2010
One of the things that I like about the niche anime we tend to get on dvd is most of these shows weren’t expected to run very long (12-26 half hour episodes), so they would end in a reasonable amount of time. This preference meant I passed on the action/fighting-type shows like Naruto, Bleach, and DBZ that went on and on forever. Considering I primarily buy what I watch, these just weren’t things I wanted to get into, even if I probably would like at least one of those three shows.
Late night anime seems to shy away from action oriented stories with difficult to animate hand-to-hand combat. The few that air just don’t have the budget to infuse enough action to make them fun as an action piece. As much as I love Cobra the Animation for it’s past-era feel (and for Cobra himself), the action sequences are lame, so it’s less good than it could be. The wish to see more fight animation is probably why I’ve been anticipating Soul Eater. It’s an action oriented show and it’s doable at somewhere around 50 episodes.
Continue reading “Finding the Action, Soul Eater”
Posted in Anime | Tagged action, Atsushi Ohkubo, Bones, comedy, English-dub, Funimation, Laura Bailey, Luci Christian, Micah Solusod, Soul Eater
By super rats on February 15, 2010
Here is my favorite example so far of how I see the absurd premise of Chu-Bra!! creating parody with overused paint-by-numbers scenes in anime. In a flashback during episode 5, Nayu’s grandmother comforts the crying five year old Nayu, and gives the silliest take on the “I will protect you” scene that I’ve viewed:
Continue reading “Chu-Bra!! Fun With Parody”
Posted in Anime | Tagged Chu-Bra!!, comedy, fan-service
