Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Another April, another Anime season

It's that time of year again -- it happens about four times a year, actually. Yup, another Anime season is upon us. Not that I have ever actually mentioned this before, but I happened to be paying attention about when the first fansubs started to hit. The Japanese TV season resets about four times a year, and the shows come out in 12 or 13 episode blocks to match it. And because I haven't updated in a couple days, I thought I'd give a rundown of the current interesting-looking ones. These are approximately in order of coolness, according to me.

1. Utawarerumono, literally "that which is sung" or "he which is sung." This show reminds me strongly of Scrapped Princess, which is the main reason for the number one position on this list. Today's picture is a shot of Eruruu, the cute and vaguely furry female lead. She also has a tail, which makes for occasionally exploited and highly odd fan service. The actual story seems to involve some kind of trapped demon apparently waking up in a man's body with his memories missing. We're introduced to a few characters and given a tour of a peaceful village in the midst of a war-torn country. I give the village three episodes of survival, tops.

2. KIBA is a show about teenage kids growing up in a cyberpunk nightmare city. Zed, the lead character, is a delinquent kid who is forever getting into trouble for smashing doors down with a hammer. His best friend and student body president is endlessly bailing him out. Zed actually seems to have pseudo-magical super powers, blah blah blah. It's the same old storyline with some fun twists. It's well drawn, though, and great for those of you who like futuristic sci-fi-like stuff.

3. Disgaea is a quirky Anime based on a quirky game. It starts with an over-the-top cute angel girl who shows up to assassinate the king of demons, who died of choking on a dumpling before she could assassinate him, but it took her two years to figure this out... and so forth. And just when you think it's already pretty strange, who should show up but Flash Gordon. I'm not even kidding. The closing credits music is strangely addictive.

4. Air Gear looked okay. It's kind of a fantasy sports anime about powered roller blades that can go a million miles an hour. For some reason, this also allows you to fly, jump fifty feet vertically, survive jumps off of tall buildings, etc. Kids are going to try this at home and they are going to DIE. Animation quality is good, so it's kind of fun if you like sports anime about non-existent sports.

Oh, .hack//Roots is also out, but I haven't seen that yet. It might be awesome, it might not. It seems to be modeled after .hack//Sign, and if it's as good as that (but maybe with some fighting?) then it could rock. .hack//Sign is still the best music to come out of any anime anywhere; it's a pity the story took such a terribly long time to get anywhere.

4 comments:

Ocouss said...

vaguely furry???? slightly confuse-ed.

Adam said...

As in, she looks like a furry, but she's more human than furry. Thus, vaguely furry.

As for what a furry is ... it's not just a style, it's an obsession. http://www.furcadia.com is a fairly tame example. If that doesn't make enough sense, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furries might help. But be careful what you ask for.

Cavan said...

Do not investigate the wicked world of the furries.

When I learned the definition (or rather, A definition) I was freaked out. Some things otter be left along.

The quote of the day is without question: Kids are going to try this at home and they are going to DIE.

Ocouss said...

Cavdawg were you trying to discourage me from visiting the sites that acius was kind enough to direct me to? You should know by now that i am uberly pigheaded. You tell me don't I will unless i see some profit for myself in not. Duh.