Brothers Conflict

As per usual with my incredibly long list of anime to finish, I only now got through the last episode of Brothers Conflict, a simultaneously cute and creepy romcom.

The story follows Ema, referred to more often as "Chii" by her talking pet squirrel, Juli, as she moves into a mansion of a house with her thirteen step-brothers. (Er, I think at least one actually lives alone so twelve...?) Juli is completely paranoid about the 'advances' that she might have to deal with living with men ranging from 13 to 30. Which is funny, until you realize that's exactly what's going on.

Basically, of these 13 brothers, about 9 fall madly in love with Ema and ask her out/kiss her/confess to her.

No, seriously. Even the youngest (13 year old) does it, though it's sort of implied that he's not at the point where he's 100% aware of the implications of things like smooches and the like.

The two eldest are more brotherly, but there are some awkward moments at one point (a scene with the second-eldest showing her how to cut a particular food properly and the closeness gets misinterpreted and awkwardness ensues). The third? eldest is a Buddhist monk and seems to be at least partially messing around with her.

But pretty much everyone in the family from high school to young adult age end up falling for and confessing to her (with the notable exception of the brother that happens to be in her class, who has had a crush on her forever -- I don't think he ever outright confesses that he likes her).

The anime was fun, and I'm glad it ended how it did, on a non-near-incestuous note, but there was a creepiness nagging me the whole ride. I'm actually surprised I was compelled to watch it to the end; despite being skeeved out by the daring advances and how Ema clearly only saw them as brothers there was something I really liked. Maybe it was the idea of suddenly having brothers. I don't know.

Freedom

This CGI anime was actually quite engaging, very well done and had an awesome story from the most-bits that I saw. Eden is a moon base (or complex of moon bases, I'm not entirely sure if it's just one or all of them together) that operates by rigorous rules, keeping the last of the humans in order and alive. Takeru, a teenager in Eden, breaks a few of the stringent rules, getting him assigned to community service on the lunar surface. It's then that something falls -- a photo of a beautiful girl, a paradise-like setting, and a message that Earth is well, is anyone out there? Driven largely by his instant infatuation with the girl in the picture and curiosity towards a planet thought to be dead, and aided by his friends, Takeru starts an adventure that may very well turn the order of Eden upside-down. I didn't see all of it, but I saw a good portion, I would say. The story has a very epic feel to it with lots of funny moments interspersed. I found it rather enjoyable.

The Galaxy Railways

*ahem* TRAINS IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE No, seriously. Trains in space. They go from steam engines on up, but they are literal trains. In space. With windows that open. From the cabins. Into space. INTO SPACE. WINDOWS. Anyway. I'm going to get hung up on that point again, so I better spit this out quick. Father is a captain of a train called Big One, in the SDF or Space Defense Force. Being a captain, he's always away, so his two sons, Mamoru and Manabu, decide to sneak to the restricted train platforms to see him off. They end up on the train in space, and conveniently this happens to be the time that shit gets real. Let's just leave it at "Yes, seriously, his sons watch as he detaches Big One's engine and suicides into the threat." Fast forward five years, the elder brother, Mamoru, enters the SDF. Spoiler alert, um, he dies too. So then it's Manabu's turn to leave his mother behind and join the SDF. And then on the way to wherever the SDF headquarters is (IN SPACE) they crash through a time rift because the train derails, likely because Manabu and what is likely the female lead don't know how to get past their prides and close a window. That is open. In their cabin. In space. And the time rift takes them back so that Manabu sees his brother die, AND the obento that was packed for Manabu gets left behind with said brother, so that he gets to die with a picture of his family by his side and a mouthful of his mother's home cooking. And that's about the first two episodes.

Jewel BEM Hunter Lime

At first, I was drawn to this anime because it was deep in the corner, in the "I have never even heard of this before" category. So, out of curiosity, I pulled it out. The story had to do with a magic user, Lime, who must recover seven magical jewels. Or something. With her partner Bass, a blue-skinned, three-eyed humanoid that has to hide in human form and has a perverted streak enviable of any anime character, the angel-winged Lime must transform into various outfits and go incognito to find and recover the jewels. Which turn into monsters that are absolutely freakin' adorable chibi object things. So basically, adorable chibi things + cute, buxom babe + perverted jokes everywhere. And Bass constantly falls/gets run over/etc. I lost count of the craters he made. And that was just episode 1. A good example of your run-of-the-mill over-the-top, fanservicey, quirky anime, at the very least. Unfortunately I only had access to a little of the animation so I can't honestly give a formed opinion on story...it's not epic or anything, but seems straightforward, at least. ...Did I mention fanservicey? I think I keep on understating that.

Power Stone

I have no idea if this was an anime originally or not; it had a more kidsy cartoonish look to it from the getgo. That, I could deal with. The peppy, young-oriented feel I could tolerate. Forced voice acting that made me grind my head against the wall? No way.

Rozen Maiden

I recently watched the anime Rozen Maiden. From what I hear, there are two seasons; I watched just the first. I have to say, I really liked it. It was an interesting mix of adorable shoujo, comedy, and action. The characters they did introduce were distinctive, in my opinion, and the story carried on quite well. It was certainly a fun watch, though not without its darker moments, as the often Gothic theming might imply...it was really good, I thought.

Paprika

Finally, finally, FINALLY got to see the animated movie Paprika, directed by the late great Satoshi Kon. I've been wanting to for a long time because the stills I'd seen were so beautiful and colorful. And, now that I've seen the movie, I know why.

The story is one of those "the bounds of technology may have been reached; see how tampering with nature is screwing us over!" ones. Scientists have developed a device called the DC Mini, which allows people to view and record dreams. However, a terrorist has gotten ahold of said device, and it's up to the scientists, as well as a mysterious dream-world woman, a chipper redhead named Paprika, to stop them before they make all hell break loose.

The movie is interesting and intense, and the theme is certainly applicable to today. The visuals are great, and just as trippy as one would expect a movie that half takes place in dreams would be.

I'm quite glad I watched it at last.

Kekkaishi episode "Hurry Grandpa Shige"

Vic Mignogna is always a pleasant presence in an anime. :)

This anime, though, voicework aside, is pretty good. It's like how Bleach is, or was, with emphasis on the comedic as well as the obvious element of action.

For instance, at the beginning of this, Yoshimori's teacher takes a while to wake him up, to the dramatically freaked out reaction of the class. Once he awakens, the teacher explains the story he slept through. The story is told visually by little shikigami playing the story's characters. I found that an amusing, adorable touch.

The evil spiderish lady here really reminds me of Kagura from InuYasha. Similar look, for certain. That bored, heavy-lidded look, and the hair, and the earrings...she's like Kagura, and omg, she even has a spiderweb on her jacket, like Kagura's scar. That's interesting. Also, her voice is quite similar.

And interesting, a man with a number seven on his back. It's more elaborate, but very reminiscent, to me, of Bleach. The Soul Reaper captains, I mean.

Bleach [unkown episode]

This episode, I think, is relatively recent; it's the whole thing about the Kasumiyoji (it's something similar to that) clan, and there's a big face off right now between the head of the Soul Society (and, of course Ichigo) with the bad guy...who has arm weapons that look suspiciously similar to Chad's. Hm. I'm not really up-to-date with the series, so that could be something. *shrug*

Anyway. My thing for this episode is, I've heard the word "explain" at least five times in this episode. I dunno, it bothers me. It feels like it's getting repetitive, I suppose, because it's actually noticeable. :/

I would probably be more drawn in if I didn't come in in the middle of this...it's a dramatic story, very enrapturing, indeed, and quite heavy and complex, but I'm simply out of the loop so I'm not as understanding as I could be, I'd say.

El-Hazard: The Wanderers

I watched the first (dubbed) episode, and to be honest, I didn't really like it. It looked interesting from the ad I'd seen, showing all these flashy character desings...but the dub was very meh. Nanami, especially (I think that was the name of the protagonist's friend), was very, very annoying. I didn't like the way they translated things at all.

Granted the first episode is just a lot of setup and not much action, so it oculd just be that I need more to get a proper impression. But from what I saw it was like, eh...

That's saying something considering the ad touts it from being by the creators of Tenchi Muyo.

Iria: Zeiram the Animation

Talk about confusing. I got to watch a bit of this series without really knowing anything about it, and boy, was I lost! My friend watched it with me, and we were both completely clueless as to what was going on. Not to mention some of the physics, quirks, and logic didn't totally add up for us. It wasn't that great, really...

I did some research on it (translated, Wikipedia tiem!) and it turns out that it's an OVA. It also turns out that it's a prequel, which explains why it was a bit confusing. It shows the characters of a live-action movie known as Zeiram years before; namely, it shows the bounty hunter Iria, the main character, "as a rookie," as the Wikipedia article puts it.

To me, this kind of reminds me of the manga for Scrapped Princess. Without reading the novels or...whatever it was that manga was based off of, I honestly don't remember anymore, you're lost. I should know, the pace was breakneck and nothing was explained. In hindsight, Iria was a bit like that.

I did find an aspect of the character designs interesting, though. A lot of characters had little...I don't know how to really explain them. They were like little decorative caps on their hair.

Axis Powers Hetalia: Language v Language

I recently watched the first season of the Axis Powers Hetalia anime; I was curious to see what it was about, since I'd heard a lot of hype about it on the internet (honestly, at this point, who hasn't?). I started with the Japanese version, since that happened to be what I had access to. The voices weren't bad, for me, and I admit, I found the series to be pretty good. The characters were amusing and references to history are always fun from a nerd-tastic point of view. It's not the super-greatest anime, admittedly, it is a bit silly and all, but it's fine for what it is. And the characters are nicely done, despite the simple costumes. XD I can see why people cosplay them so much. They're not that hard to do. There are only a handful of female characters, though, from what I have seen (watching the anime + looking up the wiki).

Anyway, I came away from the experience with an overall good impression of Hetalia. Not of the fangirlish sort, but of the 'oh, it's not so bad, kinda fun actually' sort.

Then I got to see the dub.

I'm not going to say the apparently popular standpoint of "I HATE IT". I don't -hate- it. It just...it's just rather...interesting. I don't like it. The show was silly and stuff to begin with, and the accents, while I get what they were going for, are kinda reeeeeeeeally potentially offensive and definitely uber-stereotypical. And Italy sounds like Mario (as in Super Mario Brothers). It's like, no. Italy looks nothing like a chubby plumber that jumps around bravely and saves princesses. Neither Italy, North nor South, works like that. Neither are like Luigi, really, either (or...maybe they are! DUNUNUNUNUUUUUUUUUU). It's just...the accents were annoying, to me. True, they made the show sillier, as supported by the dialogue as well, and there were some really funny moments that the accents lent to, and that the dialogue made. So it wasn't all bad.

The problem I had with it was that it totally eradicated any ability to take the show seriously. I know Hetalia's silly from the start, but this was like Excel Saga ridiculous plus ten. I don't know; it just didn't work for me. It had it's moments, but then it didn't.

Overall I definitely preferred the Japanese version.

(Now I'm trying to remember; the elder Italy said something completely random about smelling like garlic bread or something...I'm trying to remember the line. That was one of the funny bits thar.)

Cyber Formula

Cyber Formula is a racing anime, following a young upstart (I believe his name is Hayato) and his struggles and triumphs in the world of racing. It's got some great character development, and shows some good growth (I know, I know, it's cliche, but to me they did it well). Major plus for me was that a character's 'secret' identity was actually figured out by the main characters (akin to Usagi/Serena figuring out that Tuxedo Mask was Mamoru/Darien on her own, as in just by coming into contact with him a lot, and not five seconds before it's revealed). Unfortunately, I was unable to watch all of the episodes, but I saw a good chunk (the beginning and the ending). What I saw, I really, really liked. It was inspiring and really drew you in. The people that showed me the series said it was one of their favorites, too; the opinion of my fellows is something I hold in pretty high regard, and my own feelings reflected what they'd said.