You lunatics suggested so many interesting shows in the vote, I decided that only picking two to watch and learn from would be far too limiting. CODE GEASS was the winner by a significant percentage but, hey, that’s beside the point. Your descriptions were all so good, they made me want to get a taste of everything, so I’m going to go for the sampler plate over the entre, so to speak. Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to watch the pilot episodes of every recommended show and then decide which one I’ll watch based on which one hooked me the most.
What better title to start with then than this, a show whose earliest announcements I covered so many Moons ago…
Hoo boy…this was some saucy stuff. I comment a lot about the East/West cultural exchange in this column and perhaps things are finally coming full circle when you’ve got an anime with the ribald absurdity of an Adult Swim show and the stylized animation style of a show from Cartoon Network proper. It’s even got titles paying homage to Tarantino and Corman and a two-in-one format that I haven’t seen since Saturday mornings were actually worth getting up for. A lot of ingredients went in to the melting pot....
Some questioned whether I’d find this hodge podge too lewd for my tastes, but I seriously found the whole thing to be one hell of an entertaining hoot. Here’s something with all the madcap absurdity and breathless pacing of a kids’ toon with all the dirty, off-color jokes you enjoy as a big kid. I’m getting a better sense of Gainax’s philosophies as I get along here. Other studios may have ultra-violence and heady ideas, too, but they’re the only one who seem to be consistently comfortable with all the other edges of the transgressive. You, know sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. I was surprised to find shit demons, F-bombs a’plenty and enough pillow talk here to make every single character in FMA blush a redder shade of crimson (and, for once, not in the skeevy, EVA 2.0 underage way.)
The trial period’s still ongoing, but the other shows are going to have a tall order ahead of them, let me tell you. This was positively five kinds of fun.
Watch this episode "Excretion Without Honor or Humanity" here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here . Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
