shock horror

In what I can only really describe as a shocking move of horror (or a horribly shocking move I think it's meant to be) I actually watched some anime on DVD this weekend!

Freedom is basically I gigantic advert for pot noodle (Well, not actually pot noodle the company, but another brand with the same basic idea - freeze-dried noodles in sauce you add boiling water too. They're very popular in Japan and kinda represent the default "instant food".). I'm pretty sure it uses cell-shaded animation, which is a type of computer animation.

Initially, it's slightly freaky to watch if I'm honest. The same technique was used in the Appleseed movies, but there they made it more obviously CG style. Here it still looks very anime, but has that computer animation vibe to it too. It works best with action and fast moving stuff, which there's plenty of here.

Unfortunately, however, I couldn't watch it all. Freedom was actually produced in high-def, but released on the HD-DVD format. It was right around the time this was coming out that HD-DVD bit the dust, and unfortunately the final, 7th, episode was never released on HD-DVD (it's actually on a dual format - DVD & HD-DVD, which is how I can watch it). They are putting out a complete DVD version sometime later in the year, though.

Oh and I didn't say - it's pretty good. It certainly looks nice, with high production values, and the story is enjoyable enough, if a little far-fetched. You do kinda end up with a hankering for pot noodles, though, which can't be a good thing.

Welcome to the NHK okay, so here the shock and horror kinda falls down a bit, because - truth be told - I only watched 1 episode. I liked it, but it's not really much to go on is it, so I'll kinda have to get back to you on this.

But I've also been reading lots of manga!

Kurohime I'd never heard of this before a few weeks ago. It popped up as a recommended title on Amazon and what intrigued me to have a look was the artwork - it looked remarkably similar to stuff by Masamune Shirow. Having got the book it was quite interesting - the title character, Kurohime, is drawn in a way very reminiscent of Shirow, but the rest of the artwork doesn't resemble Shirow's stuff at all.

It also gets off to an odd start - the second volume is almost like a 'reboot' (I gather from the notes it changed from one publication to another, hence the restart) of the series. And to be frank the story is not hugely great. I mean it's okay, it's just a little repetitive if I'm honest, although this did improve with the later volumes. The art pretty much saves it, though, even if there is that occasionally weird moment of feeling like Shirow is drawing it.

Kurokami (Black God). Initially I decided I was going to re-read the first volume of this before going ahead and buying any more volumes. Unfortunately I was a little impetuous and also a little mistaken and, figuring there were only 5 or so volumes out I'd actually ordered them all already. Unfortunately I wish I'd done what I said as I'm not hugely impressed. It's a bit like oh my goddess meets bleach with some guff about doppelgangers thrown in as well. I think I may be dropping this an e-baying what I've already got.

Keroro Gunsou (Sergeant Frog) is interesting. I picked it up because I'm a fan of Mine Yoshizaki's artwork - his cute and sexy girls are great. The story is a bit all over the place, if I'm honest. I'm currently undecided whether to continue buying it or not. It's a gigantically long series - something like 17 volumes out already and it's still going strong. I may well purchase a couple more volumes and see what I think of them.

Also not sure if I mentioned but I decided to buy the other volumes of the Full Metal Alchemist. I quite liked the first volume, especially as it wasn't quite what I expected.