currently watching: kamichu & hatenkuo yugi

 

to continue…

i’m now in ep. 7 of kamichu, and i think the series is shaping up well. first off, i like the way the writers developed the story and its characters (yurie, a klutzy but well-meaning teenage goddess to boot, and her high school friends). the sheer imagery and scope of its flowing rural scenes are a great plus. i almost feel like i’ve stepped into an extension of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away — they exude the same aura. i have a feeling that in time this series is going to enter my list of favorites.

incidentally, Kamichu was awarded the Excellence prize in the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival, which should give you an idea what to expect.

 

i also managed to peek at the first episode of hatenkou yugi (Dazzle), and i like what i’ve seen so far. for one thing, the major characters just seem to leap off the screen: rahzel, a spunky and adventurous magic user; alzeid, a grouchy loner bent on revenge, and baroqueheat, a skirt-chasing adventurer. hatenkou yugi is a series that combines elements of adventure, comedy, drama, supernatural, etc.

 

coming up next: the film Paprika.

 

new additions

 

last weekend i was able to add 3 more titles to my growing collection: Night Wizard, Kamichu, and Hatenkuo Yugi. i didn’t have much time to sift through the newer titles, but i think i’ve lucked out this time.

 

i was able to finish Night Wizard last night. all in all, i’d give it a fair rating i think. it’s rather a run-of-the-mill high school comedy/fantasy/magical girl mixture that would have normally bored me silly if not for the good quality of its graphics and occasional flashes of humor. it’s rather short (13 eps), which worked well in its favor because i would have gladly given up on it had the series been longer.

 

 

the main heroine (elis shiho) is rather bland and generic, but the support characters (mostly magic users like elis) are well-drawn and have distinctive traits that make them stand out a bit more: the hapless but loyal renji hiragi, the livewire kureha akabane, the laconic and formidable fighter akari himuro, and the youthful-looking (and brimming with wicked sense of humor, esp. where renji is concerned).

the plot isn’t all that challenging to understand. still series should appeal to younger anime fans, particularly girls, although there are several mildly violent scenes in it.

coming up: kamichu and hatenkuo yugi (aka Dazzle).

 

revisiting Full Metal Alchemist

 

despite my recent resolve to catch up on my sleep, which i can never seem to get enough of these days — thanks to my insane schedule, i still couldn’t resist the chance to go through my triweekly anime fix.

these past few weeks i went through several new titles and and even watched school rumble again (1st season). i had recommended SR to a friend, and for some reason my own enthusiastic pep talk for the series prompted me to check it out again. i also revisted Full Metal Alchemist, which never fails to draw me in.

Full Metal Alchemist features a powerful mix of comedy, drama, action and fantasy that cuts across age, gender and racial barriers. and for all its deceptively kid-friendly appeal, the series is actually geared towards a more sophisticated and mature audience for its unblinking forays into painfully complex and morally ambiguous issues. and with a passel of unforgettable and appealing characters (the elric brothers, roy mustang, winry rockbell, maes hughes — to name a few), it’s really no wonder why the series continues to draw rabid fans into its wake.

of course, the main selling point of Full Metal Alchemist remains the strong filial bond between Edward and Alphonse Elric. it’s the kind of bond that constricts the throat and blurs your sight long after the last painful/hilarious scene has faded from your memory. and of course there is that hugely likeable scoundrel, col. roy mustang, and his efficient girl friday, lt. hawkeye; and let’s not forget their colorful posse, particulary the hilarious lt. col. hughes and the muscle-bound maj. armstrong. and a lot more, heaven knows there’s a lot more…

someday, when i have more time at my disposal, i have no doubt that i would be going through this series again if only to check out for myself why this series affected me the way it did.

 

the hunks & babes of final fantasy

 

for sheer looks and celluloid magnetism, who could resist these gorgeous babes and hunks? i know they’re excellent fighters and all, but to me it hardly mattered at all. as soon as i saw them, i knew was gonna love the premise regardless of how strange or outlandish it would be.

hey, this is the final fantasy universe remember? those guys over at square enix and their affiliates couldn’t have just churned out and recycled those many multimedia versions of this very popular and highly profitable franchise if they had no serviceable backstories to fall back on.

and me being a dyed-in-the-wool fan of fantasy/sci-fi books and movies and all, it wasn’t much of a stretch.

suddenly it wasn’t just about the games anymore. i realized that i had began to care more about what happened to cloud strife, aeris gainsborough, tifa lockheart, et al. 

then FF VIII came barging in, with much improved graphics to boot. i had my gutstrings torn to shreds by the struggle that squall leonhart and rinoa heartilly and their little band of fighters went through (who naturally managed to look great while doing it, too).

same with tidus and yuna in FF X. i felt somewhat robbed when the ending didn’t even bring the kind of closure i craved. the producers sort of rectified this with FF X-2, but there were so many changes that sometimes it feels like you’ve wandered into a different story.

and then there was advent children. i think that graphics-wise it’s the best animated film i’ve seen so far. it was nice to see cloud strife again, although i still grieve about aeris’s fate. tifa looked great and vincent valentine was cool (this guy wears his inner torment like an impenetrable cloak). as usual, i hated it when the ending credits began to roll. i wanted the story to go on and on until i was ready to move on…

oh well, at least i have their images indelibly printed in my caffeine-addled brain.