Yep, another quick look at some of this seasons anime. To be honest, these two turned out to be sleeper hits for me, since I didn’t expect too much of either of them, hence this quick article. Again, no detailed plot exposition here, I’m afraid, but I will shoot up the usual screencaps.
Ristorante Paradiso
I’ve actually watched Two Episodes of Ristorante Paradiso now. Its definately the sausage-fest of this season, since dear lord is it full of men (hence my initial reservations). Naturally, I have no interest in that facet (no doubt the squealing fangirls will like it though) of the series, but it still managed to charm me. Mainly through the fact that its portraying Rome in an interesting light, looking at the effects of a mothers abandonment of her early child for her own happiness, and also analysing that strange girl thing of loving older men (something that’s often remained a mystery to me). It also has its fair share of very subtle situational comedy hidden in there which I appreciated. I mean, I appreciate the overt comics of things like K-ON as much as the next guy, but its occassionally nice to have smirk-worthy ‘intellectual’ laughs as well. Anyway, some caps:
‘Itsah rainin’ men! Allelujah! Itsah…’ <shot> Ahem, well, its true…
Nice way to treat your daughter whom you left 15+ years ago, huh?
Well, she gets seriously blackmailed in the process, so hey, its fine…
All guys working in the resturant must wear spectacles as per the madam’s orders. Even if they’re fake, like the Chef’s…
Inevitable plot hook.
Nicoletta tries to rape Claudio. Well, no accounting for taste, I guess, but…You go girl!
Then mother pops in at the usual inoppertune moment. LOL.
More blackmail later, and Nicoletta becomes the resturant’s first female employee.
Yeah, I’ve actually quite enjoyed this show. I’ll at least look at a couple more episodes.
Eden of the East
I delayed watching Eden of the East, but I was surprisingly impressed by it. Our male protagonist seems to be a Japanese version of Jason Bourne. His memory is wiped clean and he finds himself naked in front of the White House holding only a pistol and a mobile phone.
At the same time, our female protagonist is trying to make a wish by throwing a coin in the White House fountain. However, the security obviously thinks she’s some kind of terrorist, throwing things towards the White House, and she looks to be in some trouble.
And the moral of this anime so far is:
PUBLIC NUDITY SOLVES EVERYTHING!!!
Amazingly, the cops don’t notice him until he clambers naked over the fence. Talk about selective perception.
And yet, they do catch her lobbing a coin into the garden.
I thought the intro for this was mightily pretty too. Its also sung entirely in suspiciously proper English.
I didn’t realise Noel Gallagher sung it at first though until I did these caps! No wonder its pretty good.
Saved by the naked guy with…uh…two guns? Lol at the white-scribble censor.
I thought she was gonna do a striptease too here. LOL. I think this qualifies as one of the most amusing meetings between male and female protagonists I’ve seen in a while (except maybe Demonbane).
You’ve got a closet full of assault weaponry and a stack of passports in what is obviously a safe house. Dude, you’re so a secret agent.
He literally asks the officer to compare his with the one of the photo. And he gets away with it!! (since apparently he was…uh…flaccid…back then)
And that makes everything better, of course.
Well, I’m interested to see where this one goes. It had a ridiculous premise, and yet, somehow managed to twist it into something impressively believable. That is seriously praiseworthy! I look forward to what it can offer up next.
I’ll get around to doing a post for 07Ghost, Pandora Hearts, the new Polyphonica and maybe a couple of the others soon (hopefully…) but I’ve been pretty busy as per usual. Stay tuned!
Detarame 
The long (un)awaited anime selection
Posted in Anime, First Impressions, tagged Anime, Commentary, Eden of the East, Hanasakeru Seishounen, Hilarity, K-ON, Kurokami, PandoraHearts, Phantom, Previews, Rant, Ristorante Paradiso, Thoughts, Truth and Conflict, Valkyria Chronicles on May 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Terribly sorry for my extreme tardiness.
I’d like to come up with some amazing excuse, but unfortunately, there isn’t one. I’ve just been lazy during the evenings (typically playing either Battle Moon Wars or Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer) and work’s been kicking my ass with overtime for the rest. Well, that and having to re-organise the slot of my old D&D game to Thursdays to co-inside with my day off, but anyway.
So yeah, I decided to finally do this little post. We’re roughly into the sixth/seventh episode of most seasons anyway by now, which is the half way point for those ones that end up just being 13 eps, but is typically the point where longer shows start to pick up pace.
My selected six for this season
Continuing from before:
Kurokami
Well, obviously. This show just goes from strength to strength, which is actually pretty unusual, especially in a Shonen anime. There’s not once when I’ve been unexcited about watching an episode. Oh, don’t get me wrong, its certainly a “There is no kill like overkill“ type of show in that various random power-ups and awesome fight scenes are used as lampshades for the plot. However, its animated so well and the backstory is sufficently decent that I can forgive a little bit of hand-waving from the writers. Because, hey, its cool. And sometimes that’s enough.
Kuro and Keita got a massive power-up when she started wearing a Chinese Dress for combat.
Wha’dya mean, why? Does there need to be a reason for it? Its a Shonen Anime…
Giga-Exe, the upgrade of Mega-Exe, is a hilarious attack. Makes me wonder if there’s going to be a Tera-Exe to follow up the chain in her next power up. (You know, like, Kilobytes > Megabytes > Gigabytes > Terabytes?)
Eden of the East
Yup, definately. This show has style, baby. Its also got a rather bizarre and interesting backstory that’s really getting into its swing now. Basically, some dude going by the handle ‘Mr. Outside’ has designated a bunch of people, called Selaceo, to save Japan. To achieve this task, they each have a mobile phone. But its no ordinary phone. On it is 10 Billion Yen (Roughly £69 million or $105 million) in pay-as-you-go credit. And with it, Takizawa, our male protagonist, can phone the mysterious Juiz. Who can make any request happen within moments. As demonstrated by the other Selaceo, this includes killing people you don’t like, bribing officials, constructing hosptials, and clearing up murder scenes. The cost of said action is then deducted from your credit. The catch? If you’ve not ‘saved’ Japan before your dosh runs dry, you’re killed. Yikes.
The developing relationship between Saki and Takizawa is both fascinating, nice, and tragic all at the same time…
Talk about ‘Phone of Wishes’. Its quite literally a modern genie in a bottle.
‘Noblesse Oblige’ is another title for these twelve people picked to save Japan, by and the by.
K-ON
Maybe not as laugh out loud funny in the last few episodes, but that was evidently the opening act into the story. Its instead taken the role of being the quite charming 4-koma. So far, its been fairly masterfully switching between its humour and WAFF, in fact, which is great to see, since only Lucky Star managed to do this quite as well, in my opinion. Like a good cheesecake, it is light and enjoyable and makes your day. Well, maybe that’s just me…
Well, uh, what can I say about this? How about WTF?
Awwww…this scene was so full of cute sisterly love. Nice. Real Nice.
Valkyria Chronicles
And here’s another one which likes to frequently play the style card. Its pretty with some lovely animation. And whilst the Edelweiss tank was intially the star of the show, they have actually started some alternate character development now, especially with Alicia and Welkin. What I do like is that Welkin is actually a fairly stable, noble, slightly eccentric and lovable guy, and yet, still manages to still be a tactical genius. Normally in Anime, great generals nearly always have some character flaw. Like being a complete bastard. (I’m looking at you, Lelouch) So yeah, I’m still quite interested in this.
Yes indeed. What are you doing?
Wise man is Welkin. A commander worth his salt indeed.
Ristorante Paradiso
Well, this was a sheer surprise entry for me, as I’m sure I noted before. But, despite the fact its clearly a Shoujo anime, I find it mightily charming, the drama of this little resturant in Rome with its bespeckled staff of older men and the girl caught between their antics. Everyone is characterised so interestingly, I can’t help but be somewhat amused.
Sure you were, Nicoletta. We believe you.
Ye gads, even as a middle aged man, he manages to be a charming bishie. (though that’s a contradiction in terms, I know…)
Wait! That’s Five shows, I hear you cry!
Yeah, that’s right. My remaining slot is still contested. At the moment, much to my shock, Hanasakeru Seishounen is still ahead to take it, which again is because it has a nice WAFF feeling to it.
But it is a three-horse race, with the fate of two still to be determined. The other two are Phantom ~Requiem for a Phantom~, and PandoraHearts. Pandora has had some serious ups and downs. Alice and her Scythe-weilding rabbit form are pretty cool. The bit in the actual abyss was cool. Not sure if I appreciate how quickly they managed to get out of there though, since I prefered the sheer lunatic feel of it. It also has a distinct danger of turning into a monster of the week show. Phantom started amazingly, but has been reluctantly dragging its feet a bit since then since its been spending SO much time with plot exposition. Still, its not bad.
So I’m kinda stuck, ya know?
Anyway, I apologise once more for my tardiness in posts as of late. I can’t assure you blank-outs like this won’t happen from time to time but please don’t hold it against me. (its, uh, writer’s block! Yeah!)
Also:
I can hardly believe I’ve had so many visitors in the last six months or so. A big thankyou to you all for visiting, and hope you enjoy the blog!
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