Of Swords and Parasols

And chalk another one up in the "anime's that don't quite end" category...though, it's more of the Samurai Deeper Kyo levels than, say, Spiral(despite my undying love for that anime, I remain extremely frustrated over the ending.) Still, I liked it a lot from beginning to end. It occasionally tried to be smarter than it was, but not to the point of annoyance, and except for Sherri, I pretty much liked all the characters(yeah, I have no idea why I liked Shen-Lon, whiny brat that he was, but I did...though he would have benefitted from a few punches to the face.) I even liked Kyo, though I think it's because he's kinda too stupid to hate...plus, I seem to automatically like anime and manga guys named Kyo. I'm glad Maria got more focus in the second half, as she was probably my favorite character after Yuuki.

( quick ending spoiler )SPOILER

This is also one of those animes where people get blown up or punched through the stomach or shot in the gut and the somehow live...because anime characters in these shows are immortal...even possible death in't confirmed, it's just "oh, do you think he'll be back? "Of course he will, he promised."

I'ts like the Soul Society arc in Bleach: All of that aND NOBODY DIED??? HOW?? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???"

END SPOILER

But you know what? The main feeling this left me with is "I really wanna rewatch S-cry-ed now." A S-cry-ed MV:





PS-One day, I will watch an anime where nothing explodes and die of shock.

PPS-I still wanna know why I can't go to the beach and find a guy guy washed up on shore, when it always happens in fiction...

Up to episode 17 now and still largely of the same opinion: likable, solid, but not going to win any favorites awards, I don't think. We've had a long of new psychics introduced, but I'm not sure what I think of them. All the kids are cute, but are scarily close to having "expendable" written on their foreheads. I don't really like Sherri(as in, at all..."she" annoys me) but Kyo seems ok(then again, I'm extremely partial to anime and manga guys named Kyo...comes from Fruits Basket and Samurai Deeper Kyo being among my earliest mangas) and Maxim is a good villain. Speaking of Maxim, what is it with anime/manga characters and "there's no point in killing/fighting you as you are now...it isn't worth it. I shall wait until you are back to your true power." It seems you can't delve into the genre without tripping over that(I blame my always noticing on SDK...it only shows up at least once every volume or so...) I mean really, you want the guy dead, go ahead and do it while you can. Don't wait until it'll be harder on you...Incidentally, I hope Maria takes a more prominent role soon...I like her, but she hasn't done much yet.

Also, what is it with anime and manga and negative portrayals of religion? I don't just mean christianity. The cardinal here appears to have at least somewhat good intentions, but he's also ruthless and ambitious and has no qualms at all about using small children to reach his goals, even if it hurts them. In Saiyuki, all the religious figures are either evil, weak or corrupt(or some combination) except for Sanzo and his (dead) mentor, and Sanzo himself is rather disgusted with the whole thing. And there are countless series where the Catholic church is the evil organization behind it all, or where shrine/temple or wandering priests and priestesses are either murderous, demons, sanctimonious and hypocritical, or weak and snivelling. They seem to outnumber the cool demon vanquishing/mentor/positive figure ones about 10 to 1. And then there are things like the religious arc of Rurouni Kenshin, which I think was rather well intentioned, but rather awful in it's final form...

But back to E'S for a moment...you know, I don't really ship Kai/Asuka at all, but they are canon and incredibly cute, so here's an MV. And on a final note, why is it then in real life, all you find washed up on the beach are driftwood and the occasssional shoe, but in fiction, people are always finding cute guys? I feel this raises undue expectations in the hearts of young girls.

E'S Otherwise is an anime I picked up a while back on crumpeteer's recommendation. I've watched the first episode several time(3, before now, I think) and each time pretty much gone "well, i think i'll really like this...but not today," and today it has finally clicked.

E'S is about Kai Kudou, a young psychic who joins an organization called Ashurum that trains and employs psychics (and hunts down rogue psychics) so that they can treat his sick younger sister. After a year with them, however, things go horribly bad on a mission because of him, resulting in one teammate dead, another almost dead, and a chunk of the city gone. Afterwards, he's found by a girl named Asuka, and she and her brother-figure/caretaker, a mercenary named Yuuki, treat him, and Kai asks if he can stay with them until he gets his act back together, and he and Yuuki become partners (Asuka has no idea what her ment do to keep food on the table) in Gald, a mostly lawless city. Meanwhile, Yuuki knows that Ashurum brainwashes its agents, and is trying to break the conditioning.

I've seen this compared to X: The Series, but, honestly, while the animation is similar to that of X, it reminds me more of S-cry-ed. Let's see...emerging group of psychics, most work for an organization believed to be good, but secretly evil and planning to use them for bad ends. Two main heroes are an idealistic guy who works for the organization who eventually leaves and becomes shaky partner with the other male lead, a roguish mercenary who took in a young girl and they live together as brother and sister, but he keeps the truth of his occupation from her. Lots of other people with powers popping up. While the situations are different, as are the characters and relationships, there are enough similarities that one almost has to be influenced by the other.

Anyway, I doubt it'll go down on a "favorites" list of mine, but I like it a good bit. Kai can be a bit annoying in his idealism at times, but not to the point where it makes him unlikable, and as a good chunk of it is conditioning and Yuuki always calls him on it, I don't mind. I do, however, love Yuuki. He may be a bit rough and shady, but he's a good guy and lots of fun, and he's a good "big brother" for both Asuka and Kai. He also reminds me of Shannon from Scrapped Princess, which is always a good thing. I'm also fond of Maria, a psychic who lives in Gald, whose grandfather hired Yuuki to find some important thing(but he has no idea what it even is) and Shen-Lu, the Ahurum girl(who almost died) who was Kai's best friend and had a crush on him, and Shen-Long, a guy with a serious sister complex(he wiped out a chunk of the city because they hurt her.)

I bring a solitary MV:




ETA: Ok, seriously, what's with the last bit of the end credits? Kai/Asuka is the "blush uncontrollably around each other and be absurdly cute" kind of thing, not the "sit naked in a field of flowers and be about to kiss as the tape ends" kind...

Should finish X tonight, unless I get distracted(which, knowing me, is not only possible but entirely probable) and am pondering my next anime.  Options are:

Ai Yori Aoshi/Ai Yori Aoshi: Enishi: Boy meets clutzy hopeless girl in a kimono, learns she's his childhood friend and his fiance(I guess no one thought to tell him?) and romance and comedy ensue.  Enishi is a sequel(I think?  They came together)

E’s Otherwise: Teens with superpowers working for Evil Organization(or so I gather)  Boy who worked for them to get his sister medical attention decides to leave when she doesn't get any better.  Sounds rather liked S-cry-ed, if Kazuma had started out working on the other side.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 2: Detective robopunk noir about a team of cyborgs(most of them, anyway) who serve in whatever peacekeeping, terrorist/conspiracy stopping capacity they're needed for, even if it'stheir own higherups stirring up trouble.  Liked the movie, love the first series.

Gungrave: Hitman returns from the dead to get revenge on his killer and protect his girlfriend's(his?  I have no idea) daughter.  I think someone on my flist described it as Knives from Trigun, if he'd gotten his act together and been the protagonist.  Or something like that.  *vague memories of the post*

Inu Yasha:  Forget what eps I have waiting off hand. Main plot is essentially stalled out with the occassional baby steps forward, mostly worth watching for Sesshomaru, Rin, Sango, Miroku, Koga and Sango/Miroku(any of which makes it worth casual viewing, though)

Kyo Kara Maoh: Season 1: The ONLY shounen ai/yaoi to ever interest me, and that's because of the setup.  Watched at liked the first few eps when it first came stateside.  Parody of all the shojo manga about a girl from our world being the destined/special one in another(Fushigi Yugi, Inu Yasha, Escaflowne, Red River, From Far Away, etc.)  About a boy who gets sent to another world(I want to say he gets flushed down a toilet, but that sounds a little TOO odd so maybe I'm wrong) and learns he's the demon king, that his(male) sage is in love with him, and his lack of knowledge about local customs results in his finding himself engaged to the son of the former queen.  He, of course, being used to such stories having the normal person being the hero who vanquishs the demons, has a few problems adjusting to ideas like humans=meat and that he needs a demon sword to destroy the humans instead of a holy sword to save them, etc.  I'm always up for a well done parody, and everything about this is very much that.

Samurai 7: Scifi retelling of Seven Samurai.  Seen a few eps.  Very good, very gorgeous, keep putting it off because I want to watch the movie first, but I think I'm through waiting to feel like setting aside 3 1/2 HRs for a subtitled movie(not that I don't still plan to watch the movie)

Soul Hunter: Based on Chinese Mythology, end of the world, send a younger sorcerer not quite up to the job, etc.  Mostly wanna watch it for themythology aspect.

Opinions?

(oh, I also have Last Exile on the way, but don't know when it'll get here)

Uhm...yeah.  Forget the weekly thing, too hard to keep track of.  Anyway...




I've also started(currently on ep 9) of season 3 of Smallville.  Sigh...Lana Lang has to be the most frustrating TV character ever.  I mean, I like Kristen Kreuk and think she's a good actress, but they give her some of the WORST whiny Mary Sue material ever.  I mean, what happened to the relatively cool Lana from season one?  It's like she was replaced with pod-Lana when she and Whitney broke up, and every once in a while KK gets a decent scene and I can see how cool Lana COULD be with good material.  As opposed to utterly useless and robbing the far superior Chloe of screentime.  Also?  Lana/Clark should have been over after season 2, as opposed to still being the same junk.  OTOH, she DOES keep Clark from being the prettiest thing in the show, so I guess she does serve a slight purpose.  Of course, I've been watching for Chloe, Lionel and Lex from the start, and that's not changing.  I think the most interesting relationship in the show is between Lionel and Lex...Lionel really does love Lex almost beyond the point of obsession, it's just not necessarily the good kind of obsession.  That said, there's been an appalling lack of Pete so far...

I also watched the first 2 episodes of the anime E'S Otherwise.  I liked the story(which reminds me a bit of both Witchhunter Robin and S-cry-ed) and the characters quite a bit, but I don't seem to be in the mood for it.  Still, definately worth checking out from the bit I watched.