God, I need a haircut.
My hair's got to the really annoying stage where it just looks shit however I wash or comb it. It's also acting as a massive heat blanket, making me hot and sweaty when it's not actually that warm.
I should have had it cut one the last few weekends, but I've mentioned before that I find having it cut really unpleasant. Plus it seems to cost more each time I go.
I've been doing some scanning through the week. I've actually been trying to stay on top of telly this week (loads of stuff I've been following ends this week so I'm kinda prepping for a spare-time boost to... well, I'm not sure - maybe I'll get on top of the scanning or watch some DVDs?), so it's perhaps not been as much as I could have done, but some is better than none.
I've also been watching anime independently as well as what I've watched while scanning, so here are the low-downs:
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Wow.
I'm not really sure how to expand on that.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is about an earthquake. Well, no, actually it's about people being impacted by a really big earthquake.
How can I put this? Where you might have expected all the money and effort to have gone into getting the earthquake right and animating it well, it's quite clear that just as much effort has gone into developing the characters and plot. The characters feel real - now admittedly they're not things you won't have seen done before, but they're done so well and portrayed so vividly they feel totally real.
Indeed, the realness is such that I almost found myself blubbing at a few points. Indeed, I'm struggling not to compare it to the masterworks of Miyazaki - there's a real flavour of what he manages to capture in films like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service.
This is probably one of the best anime I've seen in ages.
Bakemonogatori
For some while now I've been bemoaning the current fad in anime to adapt "Light Novels".
My main issue with these light novels is that they seem to almost completely lack originality. I've tended to assume this was because of the nature of the beast - light novels are, as the name suggests "easy readers" and tend to rely on heavily worn ideas. To say they're quite a clichéd bunch is to hit the nail on the head.
However, Bakemonogatari - which is another of the same ilk if you hadn't guessed already - seems to be offering something a bit different. But there's a bit of a catch - it's being made by SHAFT and a lot of what makes Bakemonogatari interesting is the visual style and presentation.
Since Light Novels are textual in nature, it's hard to see how this is coming from the book and not the company making it. But that said, the plot seems fairly interesting from what I sampled. Well, I say the plot - it's a little difficult to be sure quite what the plot is if I'm honest. I'm sure it'd become clearer later, but at the moment I'm not really sure what's going on.
So I guess really it's the characters that carried my interest in what I sampled.
Canaan
Y'know, something odd sometimes happens when I run through fansubs like this.
For some reason, I tend to get runs of good and bad shows. Why this happens I don't know - I'm selecting what to watch on about as random a basis as I can, yet I'll still end up watching several rubbish shows in a row and then several good ones in a row.
The upshot of which is that this is the third good show in a row.
I have to admit, though, that I found Canaan nearly as confusing as Bakemonogatari. I say nearly because there's clearly a plot kicking about in Canaan, it's just they're hiding it away to give some mystery. Bakemonogatari I just wasn't really sure where it was going.
But also like Bakemonogatari, there's enough other good stuff to keep my interest despite the confusingness of the plot. For example, Canaan also seems to be packed full of interesting characters and, most surprisingly, humour. I really wasn't expecting it to have anything funny in it from what I've seen magazine wise, but it was actually quite funny in places.
Kuruneko
Well this is a bit of an oddity. Apparently it's an anime based on a blog - you don't get that every day!
As the title suggests - neko means cat - the blog is about cats. The anime is a series of very short episodes - maybe about 2mins each - which you'd expect from a blog and they're pretty much random, humorous anecdotes about cat ownership.
The animation is relatively crude, in a Rhubarb and Custard sort of way, and like that cartoon it has a lot of charm for it.
Overall it's sort of Chii-esque, but where that has a narrative because it's a fictional story, this is a bit more random (and a bit more 'realistic') and therefore didn't quite peak my interest in the same way. I guess if it was freely streamed somewhere it'd be worth a watch, especially as it's so short.
Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~
Wasn't 100% sure about this one.
The first episode was kinda okay. Certainly the blonde underwater chick (I'm hesitating to use the word mermaid as it wasn't entirely clear that's what she was supposed to be) was totally hot and the land-dwelling girl was an interesting character. It was also quite funny and the story seemed to be okay.
But then in episode two things went spectacularly downhill.
First off, it suddenly became a magical girl show. This seemed to be a bit left-field to me. But worse than that, the story became a bit dodgy - both in terms of what it was and how it was being told.
The main crime was that a talking turtle appeared and proceeded to talk full advantage of his ability to talk in order to cram tonnes of relatively uninteresting exposition into our lugholes. To make it worse, he didn't seem to explain some stuff that then got used later in the story.
So I dunno - I'd probably keep watching, but I've a strong feeling the scales would slowly tip towards it not being a very good show.
Souten Kouro
I actually quite enjoyed this.
It's loosely inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (they love a bit of Three Kingdoms in Japan) and it's probably fair to say that it's a bit on the melodramatic side.
It's also probably fair to say that the animation is of a fairly poor standard. If I was being kinda I'd go for highly stylised, but it's also fairly clear they were a bit strapped for cash.
Oh and it's all in the bloody dark again. Partly, I think to cover up the nasty and nudey bits for broadcast reasons, but also to hide the animation a bit. Plus of course, darkness = drama. I'm actually kinda surprised in didn't rain rose petals (or real rain even) during my sample, but then that is a bit girly and this is more melodrama for men in tone.
But setting those aside, I actually kinda liked it. Although I think I'd have to absorb it in small doses - I imagine watching this much melodrama in a short period of time might have a negative affect on your opinion of it.
AIKa ZERO
Let's do a short one: Basically if you've seen and liked the recent AIKa R16 then AIKa ZERO won't disappoint.
If you've not seen it you may like it if any of the following tickly your fancy: excessive fan-service, panty shots, hot young girls, panty shots, chick fights or panty shots. Plus, oddly for this sort of show, the story is okay too.
Oh, and there are quite a lot of panty-shots.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Thursday, 24 September 2009
waking the dead
Waking the Dead has been running for quite a while now - something in the order of 10 years, maybe?
For those that are unaware, it's a mystery crime drama. The title comes from the fact that it's all about re-opening 'cold' cases - murders that were not solved at the time, mainly.
Generally speaking I enjoy it - the 'who done it?' aspect is usually quite strong and forms the main focus of the stories. Which isn't to say it's just about the cases - there's normally a fair bit of interpersonal stuff and character development kicking about.
Mainly the focus is on Boyd, the main in charge. Boyd is a bit of an odd character. He's very... loud I guess is the best word. He shouts at people a lot. It's also difficult to tell if he cares or not.
The reason he took the job was essentially because he was looking for his son, so there's a caring aspect there. But then he generally treats his work colleagues like shit. And he's not exactly kind to anyone he interviews - indeed, he's not above giving them a good slap now and again.
Which, for me, is where things start to go a bit wonky. How, in this day and age, has he kept his job? Some of the stuff he gets up to is way beyond legal, let alone acceptable, and yet he's never been fired.
The other week there was a storyline where he broke into someone's house to get evidence, for example. At the end the episode the internal investigation type people turned up and basically said "stop working on the case, we're investigating you."
Ah, I thought, next week will be about him being in trouble. But nope, it was apparently business as usual.
It's difficult to explain, but everything seems to be unravelling in a way. I mean, it's kinda supposed to be like that - the Boyd's son thing has actually been resolved, and I think he's meant to be spiralling out of control, and Spence, one of his team has left.
But the problem is they're not really being properly consistent and they're not really paying enough attention to the non-case story parts. For example, the girl on the team died in the first part.
Okay, fair enough, but it was done in such a random way - one minute she's okay, the next she's dead. And then there's basically no mention of her after that - Boyd treated her like shit, as per usual, but in these later episodes there's been no follow up to that. Grace, the psychologist, apparently hasn't even had a word with him or anything.
I dunno, it feels like while they're still doing interesting murders, the other aspects have gone a bit loose. Plus they're starting to interfere too much in the cases - it feels like none of the cases this year has been solved properly because of Boyd ballsing them up.
Which is fair enough, but where are the repercussions from that? He's not even gotten a bollocking from his boss.
It's difficult to explain, because it's always had that aspect of Boyd being a loose cannon, but this year it seems to have lost cohesion as an overall entity - the plot things running through the whole series seem to have gotten a bit mangled somewhere.
For those that are unaware, it's a mystery crime drama. The title comes from the fact that it's all about re-opening 'cold' cases - murders that were not solved at the time, mainly.
Generally speaking I enjoy it - the 'who done it?' aspect is usually quite strong and forms the main focus of the stories. Which isn't to say it's just about the cases - there's normally a fair bit of interpersonal stuff and character development kicking about.
Mainly the focus is on Boyd, the main in charge. Boyd is a bit of an odd character. He's very... loud I guess is the best word. He shouts at people a lot. It's also difficult to tell if he cares or not.
The reason he took the job was essentially because he was looking for his son, so there's a caring aspect there. But then he generally treats his work colleagues like shit. And he's not exactly kind to anyone he interviews - indeed, he's not above giving them a good slap now and again.
Which, for me, is where things start to go a bit wonky. How, in this day and age, has he kept his job? Some of the stuff he gets up to is way beyond legal, let alone acceptable, and yet he's never been fired.
The other week there was a storyline where he broke into someone's house to get evidence, for example. At the end the episode the internal investigation type people turned up and basically said "stop working on the case, we're investigating you."
Ah, I thought, next week will be about him being in trouble. But nope, it was apparently business as usual.
It's difficult to explain, but everything seems to be unravelling in a way. I mean, it's kinda supposed to be like that - the Boyd's son thing has actually been resolved, and I think he's meant to be spiralling out of control, and Spence, one of his team has left.
But the problem is they're not really being properly consistent and they're not really paying enough attention to the non-case story parts. For example, the girl on the team died in the first part.
Okay, fair enough, but it was done in such a random way - one minute she's okay, the next she's dead. And then there's basically no mention of her after that - Boyd treated her like shit, as per usual, but in these later episodes there's been no follow up to that. Grace, the psychologist, apparently hasn't even had a word with him or anything.
I dunno, it feels like while they're still doing interesting murders, the other aspects have gone a bit loose. Plus they're starting to interfere too much in the cases - it feels like none of the cases this year has been solved properly because of Boyd ballsing them up.
Which is fair enough, but where are the repercussions from that? He's not even gotten a bollocking from his boss.
It's difficult to explain, because it's always had that aspect of Boyd being a loose cannon, but this year it seems to have lost cohesion as an overall entity - the plot things running through the whole series seem to have gotten a bit mangled somewhere.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
rambo
The name's Rambo. John Rambo.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about there. It makes no sense as a joke and offers absolutely no kind of commentary on the film itself.
So yeah, Rambo. Which, in complete disregard for the film's title is actually the fourth Rambo film.
But it's such a long distant sequel, it's kinda understandable why they didn't give it a more sequel arific name: Fourth Blood or something. But that isn't to say they've ignored the time gap.
Indeed, a key part of the film is how long Rambo has spent 'in the wilderness' as it were. If it had just been "here's more Rambo" it wouldn't have worked. But what they've done here means it does kinda work.
Which isn't to say the film entirely works, just that it's a good start. So what else about the film works?
A big success is the length. With credits it's only about 1hr25. This means that the pacing is really good - nothing drags here and also, nothing feels gratuitous. Well, okay, we'll get to the violence later, but I mean none of the scenes feel like they were unnecessary - it cuts right to the heart of the story.
Another success is Rambo himself - he feels real and understandable. It follows on logically from where he was in the previous films and makes sense.
And, perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest successes is the depiction of a mercenary team in the film. Normally in this sort of film they would prove to be useless. Perhaps one of them would be good, but the rest would end up getting killed instantly and stupidly or need to be rescued by Rambo.
Well, even though one of those things does sort of happen, it happens in a way that you can believe and subsequently it shows the mercs doing a good job. These guys are just about as effectively as Rambo himself, which is really nice to see.
It's also pretty successful at portraying the absolute mess that is Burma. The story is fictional, but according to what the people they interview say and the research that was done it's not wholly unrealistic.
The last truly successful thing is the extras - a commentary from Sly himself and a veritable bucket load of extras make this a worthwhile disk from that standpoint.
A sort of successful thing is the way the violence is portrayed. It's... well, it works. On the commentary and interviews they keep talking about it being realistic. I'm not 100% sure on that myself.
For example, legs blown off by mortar rounds and grenades and people being shredded by 50 cal rounds I can believe. Similar levels of damage being inflicted by a handgun I'm not so sure about.
Also, it comes awfully close to being too much. The final sequence is quiet long and the violence and gore is at such a level it almost becomes too much. As pointed out in the extras, if it hadn't had a rousing, movie-style soundtrack behind it you'd have been vomiting in your popcorn. I mean, honestly it's worse than most horror movies.
But then there's the thing - that's sort of the point. War is horrible.
The main thing that didn't work so well for me was the bad guys. They were quite two dimensional bad guys - there was no suggestion of them being anything other than simply 'bad'. Also, the missionaries seemed a bit on the hyper-naive side to me. Especially since one of them claimed to have been into Burma 5 times before.
But overall those didn't really detract too much from the film itself, which I enjoyed. But I think you need a strong constitution to watch it!
I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about there. It makes no sense as a joke and offers absolutely no kind of commentary on the film itself.
So yeah, Rambo. Which, in complete disregard for the film's title is actually the fourth Rambo film.
But it's such a long distant sequel, it's kinda understandable why they didn't give it a more sequel arific name: Fourth Blood or something. But that isn't to say they've ignored the time gap.
Indeed, a key part of the film is how long Rambo has spent 'in the wilderness' as it were. If it had just been "here's more Rambo" it wouldn't have worked. But what they've done here means it does kinda work.
Which isn't to say the film entirely works, just that it's a good start. So what else about the film works?
A big success is the length. With credits it's only about 1hr25. This means that the pacing is really good - nothing drags here and also, nothing feels gratuitous. Well, okay, we'll get to the violence later, but I mean none of the scenes feel like they were unnecessary - it cuts right to the heart of the story.
Another success is Rambo himself - he feels real and understandable. It follows on logically from where he was in the previous films and makes sense.
And, perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest successes is the depiction of a mercenary team in the film. Normally in this sort of film they would prove to be useless. Perhaps one of them would be good, but the rest would end up getting killed instantly and stupidly or need to be rescued by Rambo.
Well, even though one of those things does sort of happen, it happens in a way that you can believe and subsequently it shows the mercs doing a good job. These guys are just about as effectively as Rambo himself, which is really nice to see.
It's also pretty successful at portraying the absolute mess that is Burma. The story is fictional, but according to what the people they interview say and the research that was done it's not wholly unrealistic.
The last truly successful thing is the extras - a commentary from Sly himself and a veritable bucket load of extras make this a worthwhile disk from that standpoint.
A sort of successful thing is the way the violence is portrayed. It's... well, it works. On the commentary and interviews they keep talking about it being realistic. I'm not 100% sure on that myself.
For example, legs blown off by mortar rounds and grenades and people being shredded by 50 cal rounds I can believe. Similar levels of damage being inflicted by a handgun I'm not so sure about.
Also, it comes awfully close to being too much. The final sequence is quiet long and the violence and gore is at such a level it almost becomes too much. As pointed out in the extras, if it hadn't had a rousing, movie-style soundtrack behind it you'd have been vomiting in your popcorn. I mean, honestly it's worse than most horror movies.
But then there's the thing - that's sort of the point. War is horrible.
The main thing that didn't work so well for me was the bad guys. They were quite two dimensional bad guys - there was no suggestion of them being anything other than simply 'bad'. Also, the missionaries seemed a bit on the hyper-naive side to me. Especially since one of them claimed to have been into Burma 5 times before.
But overall those didn't really detract too much from the film itself, which I enjoyed. But I think you need a strong constitution to watch it!
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
erm
Y'know sometimes it's really difficult to think of anything to write in these blogs.
Sometimes on Monday I've got so much stuff to talk about that I actually rattle off three or four blog posts (writing them in word) that I then use until Wednesday, by which time I've got more to talk about.
But other times I can struggle to write the Monday and then don't have the time (or, sometimes, the inclination) to write any more.
It's one of the reasons I turned Wednesday into 'movie review' day. It gives me one day of guaranteed content, although sometimes I struggle there to if I'm unsure about a film or didn't watch one.
Anyway, the point is today I'm struggling quite a bit.
See, last night I did no more scanning and watched no more anime. I could talk about the manga I've been reading, but the majority of it has been continuing series, which I don't like to talk about as it's difficult to avoid spoilers. I have started several new series, but I've only read 1 volume and I like to give them more room for an opinion to form than that.
This is made worse by what happens on a Monday evening.
For some reason, Monday evenings always disappear in a flash. No sooner am I home than it's 8 or 9 'o'clock and I'm thinking about bed, not doing anything interesting.
There are several factors that contribute to this.
First off, I like to go shopping Monday lunch, so I have to put the shopping away. Also, all the prep I like to for the next day (I'm possibly the most anal person alive) is more complicated because it's all been 'paused' over the weekend. So that takes longer.
Also, over the weekend I don't dl any fansubs, so Sunday night I end up with an average of 20 fansubs to dl on Monday. So Monday evening, with these having dl'ed during the day, I've got to sort them out, putting them on external Hard Drives, etc.
Then there's telly.
Monday night is Gadget Show night, when it's on, and that's quite often - it seems to run almost continuously. That's no bad thing as I love the Gadget Show, but I like to watch it live.
Then, factor in things like making my dinner (being as Monday is shopping day I always have to make something proper - there's no possibility of just reheating yesterday's leftovers) and shaving (I shave at night) and you can see how before I know it, Monday evening is gone.
And that's why I've never anything interesting to talk about on Tuesdays.
Sometimes on Monday I've got so much stuff to talk about that I actually rattle off three or four blog posts (writing them in word) that I then use until Wednesday, by which time I've got more to talk about.
But other times I can struggle to write the Monday and then don't have the time (or, sometimes, the inclination) to write any more.
It's one of the reasons I turned Wednesday into 'movie review' day. It gives me one day of guaranteed content, although sometimes I struggle there to if I'm unsure about a film or didn't watch one.
Anyway, the point is today I'm struggling quite a bit.
See, last night I did no more scanning and watched no more anime. I could talk about the manga I've been reading, but the majority of it has been continuing series, which I don't like to talk about as it's difficult to avoid spoilers. I have started several new series, but I've only read 1 volume and I like to give them more room for an opinion to form than that.
This is made worse by what happens on a Monday evening.
For some reason, Monday evenings always disappear in a flash. No sooner am I home than it's 8 or 9 'o'clock and I'm thinking about bed, not doing anything interesting.
There are several factors that contribute to this.
First off, I like to go shopping Monday lunch, so I have to put the shopping away. Also, all the prep I like to for the next day (I'm possibly the most anal person alive) is more complicated because it's all been 'paused' over the weekend. So that takes longer.
Also, over the weekend I don't dl any fansubs, so Sunday night I end up with an average of 20 fansubs to dl on Monday. So Monday evening, with these having dl'ed during the day, I've got to sort them out, putting them on external Hard Drives, etc.
Then there's telly.
Monday night is Gadget Show night, when it's on, and that's quite often - it seems to run almost continuously. That's no bad thing as I love the Gadget Show, but I like to watch it live.
Then, factor in things like making my dinner (being as Monday is shopping day I always have to make something proper - there's no possibility of just reheating yesterday's leftovers) and shaving (I shave at night) and you can see how before I know it, Monday evening is gone.
And that's why I've never anything interesting to talk about on Tuesdays.
Monday, 21 September 2009
a start
Well I think I can say I've officially "made a start" on the scanning backlog.
Over this last weekend I spent many hours scanning away. I have to admit I didn't seem to achieve as much as I'd hoped - I basically only scanning one animedia and one newtype. With the megami I scanned during the week that means I actually haven't quite finished the first month of the backlog.
To be frank, though, I think this is in part because the mags I was scanning were all quite heavy with scans. Sometimes each of the mags can go up and down in the number of things that can be scanned, and in the month I'm scanning I think they all hit a high.
Plus I'm a bit rusty, so that can't have helped.
Anyway, while I scanned, I also watched some anime:
Pandora Hearts
This was a bit of an odd one, as I wasn't entirely sure if I liked it or disliked it.
My problem was that for everything that seems interesting or intriguing there was something I found annoying or tedious.
In the end I had to come down on the side of not really liking it, though it'd be a show I would probably be willing to give a second go.
07-Ghost
It's a bishounen (pretty boy) show. Basically it's an action adventure type series, but with few to no women and all the men are pretty. So if that sort of thing sounds like your cup of tea your mileage may be better than mine.
Phantom ~ Requiem for the phantom ~
Well now, going into this I wasn't expecting much. It's by the same people that did El Cazador de la Bruga, Noir and Madlax. I've never seen Madlax, but I hated Noir. Cazador seemed like Noir but set in a pseudo-wild west and I understand the plot of Madlax is similar too, so I was expecting Phantom would be more of the same.
Well it is, but it also isn't. In those other series the formula is always one sassy chick and a girl whose lost her memories (and her personality with it). As the show goes on the bland one usually starts remembering stuff and coming out of her shell.
Well in this show they've got two main protagonists again, but one of them's a guy. Plus they're both without memory and slightly impassive, though the impassiveness appears to be closer to 'breaking' from the start.
What I'm basically saying was I quite enjoyed the start of this and I'd want to watch more, but my optimism is cautious and tempered by the knowledge of the previous shows.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume
Okay, first I should categorically state that baseball, like most sports, doesn't really hold any appeal for me. However, for the second time in this last few seasons (Cross Game being the first time) I've found myself really liking a baseball-based series.
Of course the fundamental point of all story telling is that it's all about characters, so I'm going to use that as my excuse as to how come I like 2 baseball shows.
To be fair, Taisho is a lot less 'about' Baseball than it is the girls in the show - and it is all girls. Indeed, if I had my cynical hat on I'd be banding around words like "Moe" and how it's all been done before.
Well this is true (although it's actually set during the inter-war period and you don't' get too many shows set then) but the point is it charmed the pants off me (get your mind out of the gutter). Indeed, so much so that I would actually put this towards the top of a 'recommended' list for this last couple of seasons.
Element Hunters
I found this to be quite tedious.
I think the idea is it's meant to be educational. It certainly has lots of science (chemistry mainly) related stuff in it. The problem on this front is it's got loads of ridiculous non-science and stupidness in it too.
But also it falls roughly into a sort of boy's (shounen) pokemon-eskue battle-based type genre that always leaves me cold.
I just found it very boring.
Over this last weekend I spent many hours scanning away. I have to admit I didn't seem to achieve as much as I'd hoped - I basically only scanning one animedia and one newtype. With the megami I scanned during the week that means I actually haven't quite finished the first month of the backlog.
To be frank, though, I think this is in part because the mags I was scanning were all quite heavy with scans. Sometimes each of the mags can go up and down in the number of things that can be scanned, and in the month I'm scanning I think they all hit a high.
Plus I'm a bit rusty, so that can't have helped.
Anyway, while I scanned, I also watched some anime:
Pandora Hearts
This was a bit of an odd one, as I wasn't entirely sure if I liked it or disliked it.
My problem was that for everything that seems interesting or intriguing there was something I found annoying or tedious.
In the end I had to come down on the side of not really liking it, though it'd be a show I would probably be willing to give a second go.
07-Ghost
It's a bishounen (pretty boy) show. Basically it's an action adventure type series, but with few to no women and all the men are pretty. So if that sort of thing sounds like your cup of tea your mileage may be better than mine.
Phantom ~ Requiem for the phantom ~
Well now, going into this I wasn't expecting much. It's by the same people that did El Cazador de la Bruga, Noir and Madlax. I've never seen Madlax, but I hated Noir. Cazador seemed like Noir but set in a pseudo-wild west and I understand the plot of Madlax is similar too, so I was expecting Phantom would be more of the same.
Well it is, but it also isn't. In those other series the formula is always one sassy chick and a girl whose lost her memories (and her personality with it). As the show goes on the bland one usually starts remembering stuff and coming out of her shell.
Well in this show they've got two main protagonists again, but one of them's a guy. Plus they're both without memory and slightly impassive, though the impassiveness appears to be closer to 'breaking' from the start.
What I'm basically saying was I quite enjoyed the start of this and I'd want to watch more, but my optimism is cautious and tempered by the knowledge of the previous shows.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume
Okay, first I should categorically state that baseball, like most sports, doesn't really hold any appeal for me. However, for the second time in this last few seasons (Cross Game being the first time) I've found myself really liking a baseball-based series.
Of course the fundamental point of all story telling is that it's all about characters, so I'm going to use that as my excuse as to how come I like 2 baseball shows.
To be fair, Taisho is a lot less 'about' Baseball than it is the girls in the show - and it is all girls. Indeed, if I had my cynical hat on I'd be banding around words like "Moe" and how it's all been done before.
Well this is true (although it's actually set during the inter-war period and you don't' get too many shows set then) but the point is it charmed the pants off me (get your mind out of the gutter). Indeed, so much so that I would actually put this towards the top of a 'recommended' list for this last couple of seasons.
Element Hunters
I found this to be quite tedious.
I think the idea is it's meant to be educational. It certainly has lots of science (chemistry mainly) related stuff in it. The problem on this front is it's got loads of ridiculous non-science and stupidness in it too.
But also it falls roughly into a sort of boy's (shounen) pokemon-eskue battle-based type genre that always leaves me cold.
I just found it very boring.
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