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The Gurren Lagann manga that I'm the most excited about right now is not the one currently being held in my hands. I really, really want Bandai to pick up the license to Gurren Gakuen Hen , or "Gurren High School Version," in which all of the characters from the famed anime appear as high school characters together. Kind of like the Shinji Ikari Raising Project, but probably sillier. But we don't have that one yet, so in the meantime, let's make do with the manga adaptation of the anime, by Kotaru Mori. All in all I thought I get the sense that it's true to the tone, and that they MAY make some interesting changes later. So far, though, it's faithful to the anime, to the degree that those who've watched the anime might not want to bother. It could be an easily-accessible entrance into the franchise for a newbie, though, if any of you haven't picked it up yet. Still, the anime is definitely superior. How about you guys? Any of you checked this out yet, or planning to? Why or why not?
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A while back I reported on an anime video that was being produced to celebrate Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton's partnership, titled Superflat First Love. That video is now up on YouTube for your perusal.
The video has a storyline, which goes something like this: a Japanese schoolgirl (Rei- and Asuka-style schoolgirl, even) walk past a Louis Vuitton shop, obviously plotting to shoplift the expensive bags. Or maybe they were talking about becoming call girls to afford them. Anyway, the girl spots a Murakami-style bear creature, and like the fool that she is, picks it up. It promptly eats her, which should teach all of you not to go messing around with strange animals, especially day-glo ones. In the creature's bowels, the girl travels back in time to the workshop of a young Gaston Louis Vuitton in the late 19th century, where she falls in love with the bagmaker and admires his (ahem) giant trunk. She then hides in said trunk and reappears in modern-day Japan. A cautionary tale indeed. Seriously though, it's cute and vivacious, so check it out!
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![]() The basic setup is thus: a high school-age girl, Mai, finds herself in the employ of one Kazuya Shibuya, a very young, excessively intelligent, and extremely good-looking teenage ghost hunter. She nicknames him “Naru,” for narcissist, because he's very aware of his positive attributes. The anime series-- based on a novel series which also spawned a manga adaptation, which Del Rey has been releasing in English and you can see a preview of here –follows a series of cases which Mai, Naru, Naru's other assistant Lin, and a handful of other charming supernatural experts solve, from exorcisms to possessions to false alarms to curses and back again. All of the characters are nicely fleshed out, and there's a fair amount of comic relief in Naru and Mai's interactions-- her bright, cheerful, but easily-frustrated self pitted against Naru's closed-off ways and biting sarcasm aren't unfamiliar, but are less common in these moe-infested days –as well as those of the secondary cast. There is, of course, some romantic tension between Mai and Naru, but it's not the primary focus of the show. The only downside of the anime adaptation is that its final episode ends immediately BEFORE the Really Big Arc that is effectively the climax of the novel series. We're kind of having the same problem with the manga, actually, since the 11th volume has yet to be released in Japan for reasons that remain somewhat mysterious. In the meantime, you can check out the Ghost Hunt anime, which is solidly animated by J.C. Staff, and it also has a decidedly under-appreciated soundtrack by Toshiro Masuda, who also created the music for Mushishi, Excel Saga, Mahoro Matic, and Naruto (although not Naruto Shippuden). So the short version is: it's a strongly-plotted and well-animated show with some interesting horror stories and really fun characters. Also worth noting, it's not a moe show, a mech show, a fantasy show, or a samurai show...it's not something amazingly different overall, but it's not the same stuff that's getting pumped out all over the place these days either. (Not that anything's necessarily wrong with those shows in general, it's just nice to try something different in the midst of it all.) The anime is currently available for free subtitled on Hulu, and I'll embed the first episode right here. You can get the entire anime series at Hulu for the time being, so click here if you decide you want to watch more! Be sure to share your #AniWednesday recommendations in the comments here or on Twitter, as well as your thoughts on Ghost Hunt!
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Title: Queen's Blade Studio: ARMS Genre: Fantasy Ratings (of 5) Story: ♥½ Animation: ♥♥½ Characters: ♥½ OP/ED Themes: N/A OVERALL: ♥♥ Thoughts: For the most part, Queen's Blade is everything you expect it to be: fanservice upon fanservice laden with fanservice and a touch of fanservice on the side. Acid-shooting boobies, the most unlikely chain mail you've ever seen, yuri twincest, the works-- it's all here. So there isn't a lot to say about it. The characters are flat (as in they're not developed personas-- they're all perfectly buxom, natch). The animation's decent, since visuals are the key here. But I doubt there's going to be much of anything worth watching in the future episodes of the show. That said, it IS very over-the-top (I can't decide whether it's a shame that they didn't take it a more comedic direction, intentionally anyway), so you and your friends might get some LULZ out of watching the first episode and mocking it all the way through, a la Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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Title: K-On! Ratings
(of 5) OVERALL: ♥♥♥
Thoughts: As I mention in the video, I don't find Yui at all compelling, which is a shame since she's supposed to be the lead, I gather. She's cute, and so incredibly moe-- in terms of being clumsy, oblivious, unintelligent, and uninterested in almost anything that isn't food –that she actually comes across to me as being developmentally challenged. KyoAni, I know what you're going for here, but it's gone so far as to become vapid, flat, and uninteresting. Osaka did the space cadet thing better and with considerably more charm. That's my main complaint about the series though. I'm going to check out the next episode in hopes that the focus is shifted more towards the other three characters, who actually have some potential for interesting interactions instead of just “awww”-bait. I also noted that Mio, who as the vocalist garners the most attention during the ED sequence, is hot. Just FYI. It's KyoAni, so the animation, voice acting, arranging, etc. are all pretty awesome...though I couldn't help but notice how insipid some of the OP theme's lyrics were, which counters the hotness of Mio's ED, hence the two and a half hearts for OP/ED.
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| Date Joined: | Sept. 30, 2008 |
| City: | Portland |
| Gender: | Female |
| Alignment: | Neutral |
| Points: | 96,311 Points |
| Ranked: | Ranked #2 of 2,856 |
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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series - 1,099 points |
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Ghost in the Shell movie - 975 points |
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Kyon character - 508 points |
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Cosplay concept - 498 points |
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Haruhi Suzumiya character - 443 points |
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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya franchise - 373 points |
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Simon character - 351 points |
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You don't know anything episode - 325 points |
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Tsundere What Annoy Me
A list of 4 items
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Mai Waifus
A list of 6 items
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License Wishlist
A list of 6 items
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John_Martone
2 hours, 2 minutes ago John_Martone wishes he was at Expo, blowing stuff up |
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Lan
6 hours, 7 minutes ago is trying to get rid of the awful smell in the apartment caused by the trash. |
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Schwindelmagier
6 hours, 45 minutes ago Schwindelmagier is REALLY hoping Aniplex licenses Kara no Kyoukai. I'm so anxious now! |
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Void_Wizard
9 hours, 6 minutes ago Void_Wizard is probably going to skip buying EVA 1.01 and just buy the 1.11 DVD next spring. |
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Sonata
10 hours, 14 minutes ago watched Seifuku Shojo a while ago, all I have to say is WOW Mr. Murakami you done it again!!:) |
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CalAggie
11 hours, 43 minutes ago CalAggie is currently attending AX! But not cosplaying. |
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RedRoses
19 hours, 39 minutes ago decided she'll work on a Mugi cosplay. Matching profile/avatar time =3 |
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Baku_Sensei
23 hours, 49 minutes ago Baku_Sensei is thinking that Blazblue fights should start with the saying, "Get Ya Guns On!" |
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