Jan 04 2009
#4-#7: Catching up with the last few days….
The holidays got in the way of my blogging there for a few days, but I did still manage to squeeze in some anime viewing time. Now I’ll catch up on the last four shows that I watched.
#4 - “UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie”: I watched one episode of this 33 episode TV series. It was very shojo, with lots of bright colors and cute characters such as cat-girl maids and sexy alien princesses. While the high-pitched voices and constant super-deformed silliness were a bit annoying, the sudden nudity and sexual innuendo were surprising and pretty funny. I probably won’t watch anymore episodes of this show, but I would still recommend it for viewers into this type of series.
#5 - “Serial Experiments Lain”: I intended to watch just one of the 13 episodes for this series, and ended up sucked in through the first four (which is all I had on DVD.) This show is strange, eery, confusing, and very stylized. And it is awesome. It might be too moody for those into action anime, and too dark for those into the bright silliness of comedy anime, but it makes up for all of that with its great soundtrack, well-developed characters, and intriguing storylines.
#6 - “GTO”: This is another great series that sucked me in. I watched the first two of its 43 episodes and will definitly be watching more soon. It has action, it has fan service (that is panty shots and assorted sexy hijinks), it has a main character who is clueless and hyper-intelligent at the same time. The animation is done old-school with hand drawn artwork, but it looks good for its age. In fact it looks better than some new school anime does.
#7 - “Gravitation OAV”: There were only two episodes for this OAV series so I went ahead and watched them both. While I loved the original “Gravitation” TV series, I wasn’t as into the OAVs. The animation style was handled differently, with more jagged lines and darker colors, which muted some of the craziness the original series did so well. The story was also a bit annoying and dragged on longer than necessary.
