I just added two more websites to the links at the left, and bumped three. Welcome aboard to Riuva and Baboon Pirates! Sayonara to OfftheKuff, Ann Coulter, and People’s Republic of Seabrook. Ann’s “crazy conservative lady” act has gotten old, OffTheKuff has fallen into total soc-lib moonbattery, not to mention supporting Carol Alvarado, and I’ve never been able to figure out PRoS — got bored with trying. Parody or serious? Enh. Who cares anymore?
The main thing that got an update is the Collected Anime Reviews page. I’ve done a number of articles that never got added to it, and entire sections of my collection were still missing. I added a lot of the AWOL series and more commentary on series that I haven’t done full reviews of, in addition to fixing a few other things. I also updated my animé order, seeing as I sent in a new one yesterday. Hopefully winging (or rather, rolling) its way too me soon will be:
Dual — Parallel Adventure (boxed set) — I checked out several reviews and all of them agree that it’s a cross between Tenchi Muyo and Neon Genesis Evangelion, yet one that could stand on its own. This tells me that either it’s obviously true, that the reviewers all copied each other, or they all took payoffs from Pioneer. If it’s the latter, am I too late to get in on that gig? It’s got a really cool OP theme; reminds me a bit of Neutron Dance from the first Beverly Hills Cop movie.
Godannar #6 & 7 — This will finally finish off this series. I’m not really expecting a lot besides fan service, but it would be nice if a mediocre series finished strong for once, instead of the pattern of crappy endings I’ve been running into lately with Scrapped Princess, Mars Daybreak, etc. Well, I wouldn’t argue that Divergence Eve ended badly. It was one of those shows that you reach the end and go “Whew! Oh my God, what a ride!” Don’t think I want to repeat it; in fact I haven’t brought myself to rewatch the first scene yet. Or seriously think about ordering Misaki Chronicles. I haven’t seen a horror movie this disturbing since Alien3. And this was much better.
Starship Operators #2 — Speaking of sub-par endings, this sure had one. Oh well, the middle of the series is pretty strong.
I’ve been hoping to hear that you ordered “Misaki Chronicles”. Alas…
As I noted, I haven’t been able to reload DE and watch it a second time yet. So MC is going to be a while yet. “Disturbing” is right; I usually don’t do horror; Blair Witch actually gave me, a grown man, nightmares. Notice that I forgot it above, and referenced Alien3, which I didn’t even like? I always have to fight to remember the title (of BWP); I suspect I don’t want to remember that movie on some level.
(Edit: Or DE, either. The first image in my mind anytime I think of that series is a bloody handprint on a photograph. You know which scene.)
Besides which, I was beginning to get this odd image of myself following you around picking whatever you looked at. 🙂 I didn’t conciously decide to break that mold, but I was clicking around Robert’s site at random while thinking about a problem, and decided that one looked interesting.
Hm. Maybe I should go alter my wish list and add it there. Or for something slightly less pointless, shoot a BB gun at the moon.
Dual is surprisingly good. It doesn’t have a smidgen of originality to it, but manages to be so very open and genial about it that one doesn’t much mind.
Sorry to hear about Starship Operators – I got partway through, and moved, and never got around to finishing it. Otherwise, for a good ending try Planetes. No horror involved! Just people… in…. spaaace, going about their lives.
The problem with the ending of SO is that it was open. We don’t find out if the crew of the Ameratsu freed their home planet or not. My guess is not, but it’s possible, given the chaos that both major governments were in at that point. Of course, that was never supposed to be the focus of the show; it was meant to be the crew, and their trials/tribulations. Somehow, they never drew me in. The problem was, the writers never tried to round the crew out; to give them unique quirks, likes, dislikes, and personality traits. (Ok, that’s not entirely true, but the ones they had were just… forced.) That made it very hard to empathize with them. I found the producer and reporter to be the two most “real” characters to me, because of their obvious shared history, and the subtle context of their interactions. It’s bad when the best dramatic line of the entire series belongs to a minor character.