Check-out Station: Rinne no Lagrange (don’t mind us, we don’t have anything else to do)

I’ve sat through some classics in years of anime watching. Gunbuster, Diebuster, Evangelion, Eureka Seven, RahXephon, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, I may even include Star Driver in that list. A list of classic “god” robot anime that have made an impact, or at the very least been intensely devoted their own style of storytelling and atmosphere. Rinne no Lagrange is not one of those shows. There’s nothing intense about it. Matter of fact, despite its dressing as a mecha show with powerful robots and interplanetary intrigue, its really a sheep in wolf’s clothing. And that’s what I think is this show’s problem. It attempts to meld genres unsuccessfully, and to the point of making you wonder why one element even matters in the presence of others. And it trivializes the events in the story and its eventual conclusion.

Check-out Station: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep12 (Knowledge versus Tradition)

So here I’ve come to the end of another season of anime, with another series I hardly expected to finish.  And a wonderful, and increasingly rare chance for me to tell someone whether I’m more enriched for the experience, or embittered by it.  And despite the sometimes vexing experience of trying to write about characters named so literally that it made me feel lazy for typing them onto a page, I think I’ve seen this series in a mostly positive light.  And no, for any that have followed me as I followed this show.  There will not be a single Light Spirit joke.  They weren’t funny in my head, so I know they’ll never be funny in yours.  Now, let’s put this series to rest, at least until they green light the second season.

Check out Station: Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (we should do this again sometime)

Episode 24

Oh how I hate finishing shows that I like. Especially when that moment comes.  The fade to black.  The word, “END”. And the fact that there’s no high energy preview telling you to look forward to the next episode.  At best you’ll get an announcement of movie in the works for much later.  Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (or Muv-Luv as I succinctly and lovingly called it) was my favorite mecha show from 2012, and may even make my Top 50.  But before I go on about where it fits in my list of completed shows, perhaps I should finish this post.

Check-out Station: Farewell Fall 2010 season! (I stayed a bit too long.)

Fall 2010 of the anime season was the first (and probably only) season of material I tried to follow almost completely as it aired.  Some may call it ambitious, I call it a f*cking chore (sorry, I watched Zero Punctuation before writing this so I may be a little “snarky” i.e. a bitch!).  But regardless I had a lot of fun, watched plenty of quality anime, and some horrid ones as well.  And normally I do goodbye post for every series I complete.  And normally I’d have time to do that.  But, and let me count, ….. ELEVEN anime means nearly eleven posts (obviously several are still ongoing) and I just don’t have the time.  Not to mention the then ongoing series that completed at or near the end of the season.  So I decided to roll everything up into one fat, American mega post and give a mini-Check-out for each and every one of these series.  Here we go!

Check-out Station: Highschool of the Dead (don’t look away, it’s gloriously tragic)

Wow!  That’s finally over.  A popular opinion I’ve been hearing on the interwebs is that the Summer season was one of the most horrible ones that they can remember.  That however does not mean that there was nothing to watch.  Sometimes it’s fun to watch a trainwreck or disaster as well.  There are actually movies out there that are legendary and popular because they are so bad.  There’s a reason Court TV turned into Tru TV and started showing all those horrible “Worst”, “Dumbest” and “Most Dangerous” tv shows where they show real life footage of  people in dangerous, or ridiculous situations.  There’s a reason Youtube videos of people getting hurt or hurting others or just making fools of themselves get so many views and make people so much money (just look up the Bed Intruder phenomenon).  And there’s a reason people slow down to stare at carwrecks as they pass by.  People are just naturally compelled to look at the outrageous and unbelievable.  I saw a video the other day of a motorcycle getting hit by a truck.  The guy (formerly) on the motorcycle was flipped in and through the air when he was hit.  HE LANDED ON HIS FEET!  The guy walked back to the site of the accident and exchanged insurance information with the truck driver.  I’m showing that video to any and everyone who will let me.  You can bet on that.  And that’s what Highschool of the Dead capitalized on, our natural inclination to observe a disaster and tell everyone about it.  Like it or not, this show was a terrible success.

Check-out Station: Heroman (there’s plenty of time for average, later)

There’s potential, and then there’s reality.  There are the hopes for Heroman, and then there’s what Heroman really turned out to be.  Seeing as this show was a mecha from Studio Bones, you have to forgive me for having high hopes.  With shows like RahXephon and Eureka 7 under their belt, and my desperate need for a new mecha to satiate my desires I stuck around with Heroman, hoping for some great moment that would make this series memorable.  I like to compare my anime to women and relationships with them (this isn’t the best habit, I admit).  To say that I was sticking with the homely girl so I could have something secure and get some regular loving when I wasn’t sure where else I could get it would be accurate.  Heroman was me sticking with the mediocre because that was all I had.

Check-out Station: Bakemonogatari (It was never really a harem. He’s just an awesome guy.)

Everyone has problems.  Everyone has stress.  Everyone has a weight they have to carry with them wherever they go, whatever they do.  It reminds me very much of a scene from the movie Up in the Air where the lead character gives a seminar on life and his philosophy towards it.  Basically, it boils down to freeing your mind and traveling light.  It’s not that easy for most of us though.  If it was, the world would be a happier place.  Now imagine all that weight, all that stress, all those problems and attach an apparition to them.  Something that feeds on what ails you.  Do that and you generally get an idea of the problems addressed in Bakemonogatari.

Check-out Station: DonKangolJones’ End of Summer Movie Special (Paprika & Summer Wars)

I don’t watch anime movies very often.  It comes down to strange combination of having an already short attention span, it being almost impossible for me not to get interrupted (at home or work) for two hours and/or the  realization that often, minus a few Miyazaki films the movies tend to be bad (Naruto) or depressing (End of EVA).  I prefer my short bits of  anime goodness.  But for some reason the past weekend became a perfect storm for me to pick up two movies I’ve been waffling on for a good while now.  With Satoshi Kon’s unfortunate death, I told myself that I would finally sit down & give one of his movies a proper watch, and once I finished with that, and the near end of summer, I decided to check out the incredibly hyped Summer Wars.  I wondered if I was about to validate my summer of anime watching, or ruin it.  I mean I could’ve always just watched Iron Man 2 or Inception again, right?

Check-in Station: Strike Witches 2 eps1-6 (Aliens hate lolis & panties, and I hate them!)

Welcome to the world of surprises, our world.  It has become plain and simple to me why I never bet on anything.  It’s not just because I’m genuinely miserly.  It’s because too often people just are incapable of telling the future.  A perfect case in point, Strike Witches the anime.  Loli-like girls without panties?  There’s no way this will fly!  Oh boy was I wrong.  I loved it and now it’s back for a second season.  I wonder, is Strike Witches 2 a rehash, verbatim of the first season?  Or is it going to build on that success?

Check-out Station: Cleopatra (“Queen of Retarded Failure”)

Has anyone ever had a friend, or been that friend who watched horrible, campy material just for the laughs.  I used to be one of those.  I would watch terrible low budget (or big budget) horror movies and my friend and I would laugh heartily at them.  Seeing things like