Check-out Station: Guilty Crown ep1-12 (take everything good about anime, put it in a blender and what do you get?)

You get a really expensive mess. I’m not one of those people that had high hopes for Guilty Crown when the season previews started rolling out. So when the show didn’t impress me at the beginning, I didn’t pay much of a mind to it. However, when the show started to go from bland to terrible, that was unexpected. For all its earnest effort, something went wrong here. Something went terribly wrong.

DonKangolJones’ Images of the Week: January 16th (am I watching anime, or the Playboy channel?)

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!  And for those of you that don’t think it’s a real holiday and don’t earnestly celebrate it, you’re a racist!  Black people, I’m talking to you too!  Learn your holidays you lazy kids.  *grabs cane and shakes it*  I have to say, it’s been one hell of a productive week, at least as far as anime goes anyway.  Outside of anime and manga it’s been kinda rough.  I’m on the verge of beating Skyward Sword when the Motion Plus breaks, the washing machine breaks, I lose a 32 gig SD card…  dear lord!  Anime has been a respite!  So I hope you enjoy what comes across as an extra level of enthusiasm for one of the few things that have been awesome possum for me this week.  Anime, you are my sanctuary!

#Nisemonogatari ep2: coitus through conversation. #pervy #anime

SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT!
SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT!
SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT! SMUT!

*SAVED*

That was a lot of fun!

#BodaciousPirate ep2: I’m slowly earning more respect for this entire production. #anime

That respect started off with Ririka, Marika’s mom, I was a little
flabbergasted early on at why she would hold so much information from
her daughter, but it seems that she at least had a plan. It’s one
thing in my mind to say you’re gonna do something before you die; it’s
another thing entirely to say you’ll do it when she hits adulthood.
And like a true (badass) mom, she handles the transition smoothly
without visibly batting an eye. Late evening target practice? Yup,
that’s how (badass) moms and daughters do it.

I see the show is taking a leisurely and relatively realistic pace
towards Marika joining the Bentenmaru. Last time her piloting accumen
was observed, this time she’s taking a shot at cyber warfare. it
looks like she’s going to delve into all aspects of the ship before
she becomes a captain. Even someone who appears to be a hidden member
of the crew pointed so much out. Understaning who and what you’re
leading will make you a better leader. I can definitely respect that.

Still don’t exactly know what Chiaki’s deal is, whether she’s a fellow
pirate or what? She can’t be a part of the Bentenmaru, you would
think the helmsman would recognize her. So I’m leaning more towards
her being a pirate for another crew, possibly even a rival. At the
very least, I think they’ll be friends of some sort. Decent episode.
Looking forward to next week, too.

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

#MacrossPLUS OVA pt1: “battle of the douchebags” #anime

Well this left a good first impression. They establish the main character and his predicament and situation pretty quickly and clearly. He’s an ace pilot who kicks ass and balls, and also he’s a huge pain in the ass to everyone he meets. He’s so much of pain in the ass that they don’t even care about how effective he is in combat and decide to demote him through transfer.

What I can’t figure out is who gets demoted by becoming a test pilot?! That’s retarded! The man is so good that he gets bored in combat, so you send him some place with the latest and greatest tech. Yeah, I would be real broken up about that, too. Not!

And then we get a nice st up for a rivalry and then a set up for a love triangle (which I thought was pretty overly dramatic, but still par for the era). We even get hints that the rival pilot may be messing with some dangerous tech that has ill side effects on his mind. He really does look inhuman, sitting on that cockpit all Buddha-like.

I think I’m going to like this little slice of the Macross universe. The fluid and detailed animation and combat, along with some decent characters are matched well so far, in what appears to a fun summer movie. My only regret is not anticipating a mini-marathon of this. I would have gladly devoured this in one night. See? I can enjoy something that isn’t socked in the “tears of time.”

Sent from my iPad

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

DonKangolJones’ Images of the Week: Jan. 9th (The courage to use my best friend as a bottle opener.)

I suppose everyone who has made resolutions for 2012 are well into enacting/ suffering through their choices. One of mine is to more consistently tend to my blog, which was woefully neglected for too much of 2011. And the Winter 2012 season is making this task quite easy. Not only am I finding interesting new series to delve into, but what I already have on my plate is good to outstanding. And despite the fact that much of my Shounen JUMP material is on vacation, I had no trouble finding interesting manga to read either. It’s a good start, to what is so far a good year. Let’s get started!

#GundamAGE ep13: not bad for a “kiddie show”. Hell, not bad for Gundam. #anime

Alright, I thought the UE just seemed weird. I’ll say they’re alien now. There was some nice set up to the battle. Of course Emily isn’t of much use since all she was gonna do and did was watch. I’ll take her in that position over the annoyances of Flay or Fa anyday.

#Eureka7 ep19: the most powerful phrase in anime, “mamoru”. #anime

You really want to tell Holland to back the hell off right here.  Eureka and Holland were almost broken in this episode, not to mention left for dead (though they don’t know that). And here Holland is threatening Renton with god-knows-what after his seeing something VERY strange.  It’s beyond obvious that he has some growing to do, and demons to vanquish. But he’s just seems to be wallowing in his inadequacies.  Good thing he has a great girlfriend to help keep him in line.

Aside from my bitching about Holland for probably the fifth episode in a row, I really enjoyed this episode. You don’t really know what Eureka’s trying to do, but when she does it it kicks the episode into another gear.  All of a sudden Renton’s running off and the military shows up in ridiculous numbers. And now Holland’s faced with an almost impossible choice.

And I hardly ever comment on acting in this medium, but it really shined in this episode. Especially for Renton’s voice actor (keep in my I’m watching the dub, go ahead and boo me now). I always knew this show was capable of excellent episodes, this is an excellent example.

Seeing as this is a rewatch, I’m prone to rediscover some things, but there is something obvious that I didn’t notice previously.  Looks like those trapars gave Renton a slight glimpse into his future.  It’s like they were speaking to him. This episode really took some time to speak to its characters. Poor Eureka got her Rei Ayanami moment when she opened that wordless book. It was a beautiful scene that I guess served as a primer for more trippy, and revealin scenes later in the show.  The show’s not gonna let up though.  If I remember right, if Eureka got her Rei moment, then Renton’s Shinji-esque moment is coming up next.

- Posted using MobyPicture.com

DonKangolJones’ Images of the Week: Jan. 2nd (Happy New Year! …now put your pants back on.)

It’s amazing how some people choose to spend their first day of a new year.  Some spend it in church.  That’s understandable.  Not my way mostly, but it’s still fine.  I’ve had enough of midnight mass or church, it just feels weird to me.  I’ll save my fellowship for daytime.  *ahem!*  The rant has ended.  Then there are those people that choose to spend it with family, a personal favorite of mine.  You can drink whatever you want with people who probably won’t rob you when you’ve passed out on the floor… or in the bathtub.  Don’t ask.  And you never have to worry about how you’re getting home with a BAC (blood alcohol content) that could very well be a Major League baseball player’s batting average, while avoiding police checkpoints.

Then there are who have to spend that time; the very waxing hours of the morning, the day, the year, at work.  And depending on the profession, you have to spend that time with the a-holes who seem to choose to spend their first hours of 2012 in the hospital or jail.  You morons make me sick and are the reason why I prefer to spend my waxing hours doing what I did, watching anime.  The holiday vacation time is a good time to catch up on many things.  I’m happy to say I caught up or started some nice material, and unlike the post I had there’s a much greater variety.  So for those of you who, like me, enjoy all things anime,  here are my anime, manga and pervy (hooray) images of the week.

#GundamAGE ep12: X-Region? X-Region?! Who at Bandai do I have to punch?! #anime

He’s a Newtype you twats!!  A Newtype!  Just come up with some bullsh*t excuse to give him the proper title.  Ugh! I better move on.

Good, entertaining episode.  Sure there seemed to be plenty of times when it felt like everyone was having a staring contest, but they managed that reasonably well.  Mr. Chocolate Bar showed some real planning skill, I suppose that if Grodek wasn’t so damn lucky (or blessed depending on how you want to see it) they would’ve been captured or badly damaged before they ever got to a UE fleet.

It all panned out a bit too conveniently for me at times, but I suppose things still came across with a reasonable amount of suspension and action.  We even got a Newtype flash from Flit.  He showed some stellar spatial awareness and reacted like a psychic to his opponents for a moment there.  I even thought I saw a little Amuro in him for a moment there.

All in all, a good transitionary episode as the show moves towards the end of its first generation, or arc, or whatever you want to call it.  I’m also glad that I didn’t hear a lick about the AGE system for another episode. I’ve been afraid that the show would come to rely on it too much, as if it were a new toy for a Saturday morning kids’ show.  But the AGE has been well restrained the entire time regarding it.

I’ve seen a quality product in the show and it’s making me very optimistic about what it can achieve in the future.  This next episode will be crucial in several ways for the show, however.  I want to see what they do with the animation, with the characters, with the tone of the show.  I’m very anxious to see how dark it plans on being.  In my opinion, dark Gundam often equals good Gundam (Turn A being an exception).

Sent from my iPad

- Posted using MobyPicture.com