Well, thanks to the $$$ crunch from dental work and other things, I had to halt my animé purchases for a while. I managed to hang tight while beating down the credit cards, but I was starting to get the shakes, see Skuld lurking with a bomb around every corner, and have odd dreams involving giant robots and cute girls. When I found myself plotting the fastest way to deal with Hezbollah positions in Lebannon using combat maid androids, I decided I’d best get my fix before I started calling NASA to see if they’d spotted any green-haired alien babes on the recent shuttle mission.
Sooooooo, I just contacted my pusher through his super-seekrit online order form, and had him send me several hours worth of mind crack:
Excel Saga Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Divergence Eve Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Mars Daybreak, Vol #6 DVD
Godannar, Vol #5, International Affairs DVD
Starship Operators, Vol #1, Revolution DVD
Excel Saga: I’ve heard too much about this one for too long, mostly thanks to TRG. Got to check it out; this show sounds seriously demented. Fits me to a ‘T’.
Divergence Eve: I just can’t pass up those cows! I mean pilots. Pilots! Whatever. The second series has gotten rave reviews but you gotta see this one first or nothing makes sense.
Mars Daybreak: Finally finishing this series off. I hate to say it, but I started having problems with Vess on the last DVD. She went from “I want to kill Gram” to “I want to kiss Gram” a bit too quickly. One thing though, her dad is definately in cahoots with the big conspiricy.
Godannar: Robots and scantilly clad babes. How can I argue with that? Two more after this one, and then I’m done. I have to admit, my interest is slacking a bit in it. The story is thin, and when they start giving you stats on the monsters, you know they’ve skimped on the plot.
Starship Operators: Sorta obligated myself to buy this series by watching the fansubs. It’s the best damn space-military show since Banner of the Stars. Although there’s not many fleet engagements, every battle is tense and well done. Only negative is that they have a tendency towards “Geordi LaForge” solutions from the first officer. And the ending is rather ambiguous, which was my biggest problem with the series.
Ah My Goddess! didn’t make the cut this month, but now that I’ll have finished off Mars Daybreak, I’m thinking a smaller order might be in order late next month, and I can pick it up then. Also, I need to see the reviews on “This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.” I couldn’t decide from the pre-release publicity if it was worthwhile or just another thin plot with fanservice tacked on.
And now, back to your usual programming.
I don’t think you’re going to be disappointed with Divergence Eve. It’s not the case that it’s something you have to suffer through just so you can watch Misaki Chronicles. MC is definitely better, but DE is very good and well worth watching in its own right.
I’m going to be interested in seeing how you compare it to Godannar, since they’re both science fiction stories with fan service.
I suspect I’m going to like DE better, though I’ll actually have to watch it to find out 🙂 I’ve noted before, that one of the problems with Godannar is that the bad guys are very one dimensional and there’s a lot of plot that’s just unsupported. My final grade for Godannar is going to depend heavily on whether they finally show a rationale behind the Mimetic Beasts, and whether my psychic theory bears out.
If it turns out that they’re just mindlessly following the stanadard anime tropes and have cardboard villians (which is what I’m afraid will happen), then they’ll get a poor grade. I may gas over the fanservice (hey, Shizaru made the cut on my dream harem for a reason!), but fanservice alone doesn’t make anime great. Just very watchable.
Very watchable.
Actually, it’s not accurate for me to say that the “only” problem with SO is the technobabble solutions to their problems. The biggest problem was that they threw too many characters at the viewer in the beginning, making it hard to keep track of them all. Basically, the only ones I could lock down at the beginning were the ones that became the captain, first officer, and the one whose father was the ex-PM. And I feel it was a mistake to have the puppetmaster underfoot but not shown.
Ah, good. I want to see the end of Mars Daybreak!
-W
When are they due to arrive?
I’m a little cheezed on that…. the delivery map on Robert’s site said I was in a 4 day shipping zone. (I misread it as 3, but that was my fault). Ordered on Tuesday the 25th, but…..
Tuesday. A full week from the order. SIX days from when they were contacted for pickup. I know the map is from UPS so I don’t blame Robert for that. I guess I’m spoiled…. I live in a state that is as big as some countries (like France, cough, gag), and they’re being shipped by ground transport from Hagarstown, MD to Houston TX, which is slightly less than Antwerp to Moscow. But still, I’ll have nothing to do this weekend but work on a new Agenda blog post and play EQ.
And I should be clear: I consider this an improvement. My last two orders through DVD Empire got held or split because something wasn’t in stock when they claimed it was, which is why I went back to Robert this time. DVD Empire is about 5-10% cheaper over this size of order, but I know if Robert says it’s in stock, it is in stock and will ship. Empire has delayed orders for nearly 2 weeks when they promise “same day shipping if you order by 3pm!” Something I pre-order should not go out of stock on the release day! But what do they care? Anime isn’t much of their business, but it’s Robert’s specialty.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times and …. I dunno, nothing seems appropriately sarcstic. I just hope that this time I remember to save the discount number for my next order. Every little bit helps.
Edit: dangit, some blogs use bbcode, some use html, and somehow I keep forgetting this is one of the latter. Which, considering it’s MY blog, is a tad embarassing.
“4 days” means 4 business days.
Which is odd, as I’ve gotten Saturday delivery before. I note that FedEx and UPS have slightly different delivery days. Anyway, I’m just being irrationally grouchy, and I know it. But I don’t let little things like that stop me when I’ve got my grouch on!
Well, the tracking site says it was checked into Houston at 8 A.M. this morning. I assume that means it was actually sitting on the dock most of Sunday, and that a fair portion of today will be spent pushing it around the warehouse to get it on the right truck for delivery. Very small chance of delivery today, but likely tomorrow.
I’ve decided that I’m going to leave Divergence Eve for last.
BAYTOWN, TX, US 08/01/2006 4:26 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
No, I’m not waiting impatiently to get off work today and go watch anime. Whatever would make you think that?
08/01/2006 12:54 P.M. DELIVERY
Obsessed? Don’t be ridiculous. I just desire to be well-informed.
You’re leaving DE for last? You just want to torture me, that’s all.
You’re lucky, I think I’ve changed my mind. But it will still be the weekend at least. See the new post (as soon as I finish it…)