Flow, Maaya Sakamoto, Nami Tamaki – A few recent music dabblings

I don’t talk about music much here since I haven’t really listened to much new stuff in years. One of the most recent albums I’ve acquired is Flow’s Airu album. I like FLOW from their work on the Eureka Seven OP and Code Geass OP.

This album is just great. I can’t really say much about the lyrics since I’m not at that level, but I can comment on the music. This has a lot of awesome tunes by my standards. They oddly sound like Beat Crusaders now and then in this album. The first song, Answer, is like fast paced and the “new sound” I’ve been wanting to hear in a while. If you like Colors that is also on this CD as an Album Mix. It sounds a little different but not too much. There is also a song on here which is FLOW and HOME MADE KAZOKU so that is like the greatest combination possible for me.

I don’t normally get singles but I got the Triangler single by Maaya Sakamoto since I wanted to see what she’s been up to. Also I really didn’t know it was a single to be honest. All I have to say is. WHAT. THE. HELL? This isn’t the Maaya Sakamoto I loved from years ago. What’s with the high pitched poppy voice? Where are the acoustics? What happened to her voice!? >_< I don’t like what she has done at all. I hope this isn’t how she is now…

I liked her music. I can’t explain it but it was like something you’d listen to on a cloudy/rainy day since it sounds so mellow. I dunno, if you listen to her old stuff maybe you’d understand, but not all of her stuff is like that. Active Heart, Platina, Hemisphere, Kiseki no Umi, Loop, etc. All great stuff. I don’t really like the other song on this single either… Maybe Maaya has met her end?

The last album I got is the Don’t Stay album by Nami Tamaki. Eh, what can I say. She keeps on delivering the great and fast trance/techno beats that I enjoy.

I am the most critical anime fan ever

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV) Very good
69: Fullmetal Alchemist (TV) Good
72: Last Exile (TV) So-so
115: Chrono Crusade (TV) Bad
125: Serial Experiments Lain (TV) So-so
135: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV) Good
168: Lucky Star (TV) So-so
177: FLCL (OAV) So-so
189: Dennō Coil (TV) Decent
198: Clannad (TV) Good
202: true tears (TV) So-so

True story.

I think I would be most likely to get into an argument with someone over my rating for these shows because they go against the masses. Personally, it generally seems like I rate one level lower than the norm and one level higher than the norm on shows I like.

True Tears – Kids today

I wish I were following this show during its run so I could see what everyone else’s opinions were as time went on, but what are you gonna do?

I don’t know if it’s because it seems like True Tears is trying to hard to be as dramatic as it can be or maybe it’s just the kind of cynical and bitter mood I’ve been in as of late. Whatever the reason is I just could not find myself getting into this show. It was more like tapping my foot waiting for each episode to end hoping that maybe the next episode might bring something exciting.

I mean, come on. This is why I hate high school drama anime. I can’t watch it because I am so judgmental of all the actions and dialogue of the characters. Everyone is sad and/or angry and/or likes someone else and trying to get their attention while using other people in the process. It’s so stupid and just reminds me of my bitter high school years. It sucks that the only cheerful person in the show is one crazy bitch that likes to talk to chickens.

Noe is one freaking weird character, and even a weirder character if you encounter a person like her in real life. Noe is… I don’t know even how to freaking describe her. Is she just from a sheltered background? How the hell goes through a thing like in episode 7 where she is like, “I think I’m in love.” and she didn’t even realize it until Shinichiro mentioned it? I have a feeling she is one of those girls that is in high school and still doesn’t know men have a pOnOs. Does such a girl even exist in real life like that?

Although, Hiromi becomes extremely bitchy mid series and makes Noe look more tolerable. Once Hiromi opens up again it is pretty cute.

The thing with Ai and Shinichiro’s friend was such a train wreck. Come on dude, just give up she’s not interested in you. That shit should have ended sooner.

My god, and the mother in this show was such a freaking bitch. One of the most bitchy moms I’ve encountered in anime, and it wasn’t even properly explained why, I thought.

I would say that episode 6 definitely changed my whole opinion of the characters up to that point and drew me in a little bit though, but not for long. I don’t know about you guys, but I knew the whole siblings thing wasn’t true. I wasn’t sucked into that bullshit. It just all seemed so ridiculous. Shin’s dad didn’t seem like the type to fool around.

I dunno. It was an okay show. Nothing awesome. You see, I just can’t take these shows seriously, and they probably end up being worse than they really are in my eyes. Just look at all the other shows I’ve seen like it. They all don’t have very high ratings. Truth be told, I’m a romance sap but this kind of stuff is just retarded.

True Tears 1-3 – Noe must die in a fire

Oh shiii-! He overheard me?!

I never do this but I was only two episodes into the series and True Tears isn’t a very long series to begin with so I decided to just rewatch the first two episodes and then continue from there.

This time around I am not so kind to call Noe a little weird/enigmatic. This time watching I found her really weird and crazy. I don’t really understand how anyone watching this show could like her in the way I like a lot of the bishoujo on my favorites list. She’s one crazy bitch and if this were real life I’d get a restraining order. Trying to feed me seeds and being one hell of a nuisance? That isn’t moe. That’s weird. Although, she really put Hiromi in her place in episode 2 so props for being an ass.

I still like Hiromi but mostly because of how she looks and dresses. I really don’t care if I’m spoiled or not but I bet 100% that Shinichiro gets together with Hiromi in the end. The childhood friend always wins in the end, and not the crazy freshmen girl or are they all on the same grade level? Oh well.

I still like the animation and what not. Very consistent and nice. Yadda yadda yadda. Getting kinda tired of high school drama anime since I’ve been out of high school for more than 3 years already. The characters are just so stupid because their dialogue is supposed to be like they’re young and don’t know what the hell is going on. It’s annoying and you’d wish the main character were more assertive, and just ask the damn girl, “Are you interested in me?” Has there ever been a freaking assertive male lead in these kinds of shows? Freaking ridiculous!

Regardless, I haven’t really watched much of this genre of late so I’ll let it slide.

Aria the Animation – Sketchbook True Color’s with… Gondolas?

Just finished up the first episode of Aria the Animation. I honestly cannot decide which is more slice of life and laid back between this show and Sketchbook Full Color’s, which is perhaps the only other slice of life similar to Aria I have seen. They’re really not that similar in terms of plot, but they both really are cut from that same mold. Melodic music, likable characters, and a slow yet not boring pace.

Wait, what? I like a Chiwa Saito character? NO WAI.

I really want to see more of this show but sadly I have a bandwidth limit at my college. Maybe I should venture outside my dorm for once and just leech off the library’s bandwidth like I used to.

Whatever this guy is I freaking want one because he is WIN.

Code Geass R2 04 – A great power joins the rebellion

Great episode. Made up for the shitty Shirley filled episode of last week. This entire episode I could just feel the tension oozing from Lelouch’s body. If this was anything other than fiction the situations Lelouch got wouldn’t have worked out so well. And yet, I was still on the edge of my seat wondering if everything would end up okay in the end. That is the appeal of Code Geass.

Lelouch continues to show just how much of a manipulative bastard he is by being all kind to Rolo and actually getting him on his side, which I didn’t quite expect to happen now or any time in the future to be honest. Kinda goes back to how I said, “Since the characters stand out, from my perspective it just seems like anyone has the possibility of becoming Zero’s ally.” With Rolo’s power, I really wonder how things will go now?

Kaguya-hime actually got a line of dialogue this episode. ONE LINE! I am overjoyed.

Once again Zero is up to his old tricks of destroying platforms, but if it works why try something new? Also, we get to see some of Zero’s awesome snowboarding skills.

It was touching oddly enough seeing the reunion of Oogi and the others.

Episode 5 looks like more shitty filler, but it might be interesting since Suzaku decides to come back to school. They all think Lelouch has fake memories still so I wonder what could happen? Will Suzaku still be overly emo and angry just at the sight of Lelouch? Hmm… Also, I see Anya in the preview!

This scene was pretty cute. I found myself playing it back at least 2 or 3 times.

This is how I like to see the useless side characters. Watching the TV not saying anything with worried expressions on their faces.

Why is Tsubasa Chronicle so BORING?

KYAAA! So cute!

You’d think a story about an older version of Shaoran and Sakura would be great but in actuality it isn’t. Now, I have only read volume one of the manga, but that seems to follow the anime pretty well and that wasn’t any better.

Anyway, what is it about this show that makes it so boring? Is it because of Bee Train the studio that brought us such great (read: boring) series such as .hack//sign, Arc the Lad, and Wild Arms: Twilight Venom? The pacing just freaking blows in this series. I just started season 2 today and memories about how boring season 1 was are coming back to me. Although, I will say that the last world they visited in season 1 was neat because it had an interesting plot twist I didn’t expect, but that world was like the last one they visited. The rest of the show was such a bore fest. I can’t say I like the OP and ED too much either to this 2nd season. Blaze and Loop were so much better.

Why am I forcing myself to watch this? Well, I like the characters. Shaoran and Sakura are my all time favorite CLAMP couple, and the every now and then crossover stuff is kinda neat even though CLAMP is just milking their own stuff. But what old franchise isn’t anymore? I kind of have a desire to see what kinds of worlds they might visit, but then if it’s a shitty world like what they’ve been currently getting into it’s such a downer.

I think I complained about the voices not being the same voices from CCS, but not so much now watching season 2. Yui Makino does a decent enough Sakura, and how I might imagine her voice to sound if she was older. It sounds similar to Sakura Tange in some instances…. Least I think so. I kinda like the keigo using Shaoran now, but I still like the younger ruder punk he was in CCS. By the way, if you haven’t seen CCS yet you better get to that soon because it is a classic as far as magical girl shows go. Don’t worry. I only just finished it in 2005 myself.

I don’t think this show will get any better and reading some of Hinano’s entires about it isn’t giving me any positive reassurance. Although, I’m usually one to see a show through to the end no matter how shitty because I’m an anime fan and I like having that extra notch in my belt so I can say I watched it.

OH SO NERDY.

Mahou Sensei Negima 17 – Nice battle scenes

I picked up volume 17 of the Negima manga as well. I’m probably a lot more farther behind than everyone else, but I honestly don’t support manga fan translating. I’m probably missing out on a lot of great stuff not just in Negima but in other manga. Oh well.

Anyway, this was a pretty neat volume I would say. I’ve been angry about the tournament arc being boring and the fighting being boring but the fights in this volume were great. I guess it should be since practically the entire volume was just fighting stuff, but then again so were the tournament volumes and those were boring.

The fighting between students from the same class really interested me this volume and gave me a Battle Royale kind of vibe. Like Kaede vs Tatsumiya, and the various other students on different sides for whatever reason. I especially liked how Akamatsu interpreted cyberspace for Chisame’s ability. It was creative, I think. I still want to see Nadoka and Yue do stuff battle wise but they seem to have rather non-combative abilities.

I will say that I didn’t quite enjoy the serious scenes in this volume. I guess it makes sense Negi being 10 years old and of course he’s going to question if what he is doing is right or not. But I dunno, I don’t think this really suits this kind of manga. For me it was like, “Yawn yawn yawn. Let’s get back to the story.” If anything it shows that Negi has really grown up for whatever that means since I don’t remember thinking about such things at age TEN.

I liked a lot of the character costumes this volume. Chao’s mecha like body suit thing with the floating things hovering around her. Negi’s tattered coat and his scar. Also the mecha designs were pretty cool.

A lot neat stuff going on and I’m even more hyped up for this series again. I wonder if things will start settling down again now that Chao seems to be defeated? Honestly 3 years ago, I would have never thought this manga would go in this kind of direction. Just awesome. Makes me want to retry that shitty Shaft adaption just to get more of Negima.

I miss the constant fan service though…

Chobits – A tale of escapism

Well, it’s been HOW LONG since Chobits ended in America? 5 years or so? I dunno, I think I remember being in high school still when it was being released so it’s been a long time. I put off buying the final volume of the manga because if you seen how thin that thing is it most certainly isn’t worth $10.

The final volume is okay but Chobits as a whole is a story about escapism. Falling in love with things that are pretty much computers? Pfft. CLAMP was always known for their stories trying to go beyond the normal conventions of male x female relationships. I guess a story like this would appeal to a lonely otaku because their only friends are their computer, probably.

Oh well, I dunno. It’s been awhile since I actually was in touch with the chobits manga so I’m probably just being critical, but what’s new? I think I enjoyed it at the time, and I liked Hideki since a male lead was a new thing for a CLAMP manga.

Although, I think CLAMP went downhill with Chobits and they haven’t been able to get the same charm as in the past. Let’s just rehash everything we’ve done. Tsubasa Chronicles lol.

Kure-nai 03 – Another perfect episode

Wow, it’s been so long since I watched an anime where I am just so satisfied with each episode. I hope whatever this show has been doing keeps up until the end. If you aren’t following this show. You absolutely fail because this is perhaps the BEST show this season. It really saddens me when my Code Geass R2 entries get more hits than the Kure-nai ones because Kure-nai is definitely the better show.

WATCH THIS SHOW DAMN YOU!! Get off your damn fence and give this show a try. It’s not some pedo show or whatever you think it is. The only pedoness the show has is if you think of the situations with that mindset. It’s a great show, but I bet a lot of you won’t take my advice now and will just wait till the end. A lot like Baccano!…

Nothing more needs to be said because I’d just be repeating myself from my other two entries why I love this show.