DonKangolJones’ Images of the Week: April 12th (the Abbrev. Ed.)

What? Don’t look at me like that.  I’ve been busy.  Regardless, it’s been a fun if not very productive week.  I got to finish two series that have been running for 2 seasons and I got some surprising results from that.   I’m slowly dipping my toes into the new season, though I’m careful not to overlook the massive backlog I now have following me.   I’m looking forward and backward this week and for this post.

The highlight of this week was finally finishing Star Driver and Bakuman.  To my chagrin, the show I loved throughout its run left me wanting with the ending. The that left me wanting gave me a very satisfying ending. Though all it did was get me excited for the eventual second season (October seems so far away). Don’t get the wrong impression. I still consider Star Driver far better and more entertaining than Bakuman. It doesn’t change how I score the shows much or where high one stands in my library next to the other.

Bakuman had a terrible time keeping my attention and not disappointing me at times. Whether it be my impressions of how the manga may have been written, or how the manga was interpreted. When Bakuman focused on the manga industry, the creative ideas and their distinct personalities and goals it shined. I could easily see why it had become so popular a manga. When the show delved into the non-manga related aspects and people it felt decidedly less compelling and entertaining.

The romance was so idealistic and childish that I damn near outright dismissed it. I never enjoyed it. How could you enjoy a romance does not encompass anything more than looks and text messages? Even a long email would make it a more tolerable experience. Instead they just metaphorically put each other into glass cases as goals to aspire to. It’s sparse and I suppose the characters feel it well enough, but the audience isn’t going to have much luck. Thank goodness the final few episodes spent so much time focusing on the various mangaka rivalries.

That said I am glad to see Ashirogi Muto get off the ground and serialized.   The weekly trials of a mangaka, sorry of a pair of mangaka, still in high school sound like they will be full of chaos, highs and lows and I can’t wait to soak in the drama.

Star Driver‘s ending was an amazing curiosity for me.   Either I wanted something it didn’t give me, or it gave me something I didn’t want. But aspects of the show never quite matured enough for me to feel like it was a classic. The
ending exposed that. On top of that complaint, the ending didn’t quite feel like the Star Driver I had gotten used to watching. TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN came to mind quite a bit as the episode ended. And I thought to myself that that wasn’t quite right.

Star Driver was always a elegant and lighthearted show. I always wanted the show to grow a bit darker, but that never stopped me from enjoying it. I always thought the combat was the show’s biggest weakness, but I always believed it could be ignored as long as it was pretty. To be honest, the classic
Revolutionary Girl Utena had terrible combat when it came to substance, diversity and choreograpy, but the show was remembered more so for its symbolism, elegance, and dark, controversial tone. Great combat does not make a good show, though there are great shows with great combat. It’s not a one to one correlation. Though I’ve sat through many of sh*tty show to bask in the glorious violence of a show. *cough!* Gundam *cough!*

In the final episode, Takuto seemed strained even before joining in combat. The yelling seemed to be kicked up a notch too far for me as well. The animation got loose to go along with the very high frame count and I couldn’t help that think the show had gotten a little bit loose itself.  It seemed to revel in being set loose, but I missed the restrained. Most of the episode felt like the
end of kids’ show with Toshio’s ridiculous selfishness and ambitions.

I honestly thought that Toshio was the show’s second glaring weakness next to
the combat. Despite seeming like a great villian and foil for Takuto, he was horribly underdeveloped in my eyes. His much anticipated moments were fleeting with Takuto and somewhat disappointing. I’m surprised Takuto only wanted to punch him and didn’t seem to care anything beyond that. For all we know he may know less about Toshio than we do. This coupled with the lack of any sort of interlude makes me hope that their will be an extra episode or even a movie to put a satisfying cap on the series. But the last episode doesn’t seem to leave much room for that. If there’s anything I hate its unanswered questions and untapped potential at the end of a series. Then again I’ve changed my mind and opinion on shows due to rewatches, and Star Driver is a show that begs for that sort of thing. We’ll see, but for now Star Driver sits well below its distant relatives Evangelion, Rah Xephon, G Gundam and Revolutionary Girl Utena.

My week wasn’t all spent on the ponderableness of completed anime. I pondered ongoing series as well.  Gosick is far from over, but has left me pondering the viability of Kujo and Victorique’s relationship. I’m sorry but Victorique is so tiny and underdeveloped that I’d be surprised if Kujo was arrested and beaten for running around with her.  Though given the public nature of their relationship he’d probably be safe seeing as how he appears to be her butler/manservant.   Episodes eleven and twelve did a great job on developing Victorique’s relationships with Grevil and Kujo. Though the veils are still their keeping everyone from breaking out of or past their initial roles,
everyone should be able to understand the parties much better now. Never thought I’d say this, but my heart goes out to Grevil. Yeah, I said it.

When it comes to the new Spring season I’ve barely touched on anything, but I did get some enjoyment out of what I did try.  Tiger & Bunny definitely caught my interest with the first episode and I am definitely following that. Nichijou has proven to show mild potential and I’ll give that the five episode test as well.  Dog Days was not very good, but since my policy is to not just be an elitist and even try stuff that I don’t think I’ll enjoy, I’ll give that one five episodes as well.  Let’s see how that goes.

The final anime I watched was Shiki, but it’s far too early to say much about
that.  Perhaps a Check-in Station will be coming soon.

Next week I’ll be catching up on Fairy Tail; finishing Yumekui Merry; doing some group watching with the SCCSAV if my schedule pans out; and checking out a few more Spring anime with some tandem watches included for fun. Sorry, but due to my busy schedule (and my new slight obsession with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) I wasn’t able to get any manga or pervy material in to this post. I can only hope that I can make it up to you guys next week. Have a good week, and I’ll hopefully see you guys seven days from now.

– Posted using MobyPicture.com