Sorry I haven't been updating much lately

Well, unfortunately, I've had to move out from my current apartment into a new location (away from my parents too!), so I haven't had much time to actually write stuff. Fortunately, I should be done with that around the first, so posting frequency should increase soon after that. Sorry about that

Anime in Focus: FLCL (Fooly Cooly or Furi Kuri) Episode 2

 <-Previous Episode

Well, this episode manages to cram in just as much weirdness in as the previous episode. I believe this makes sense in a six episode series, as time to sit around and stare off into the distance is quite short.

It should be noted that the pillows soundtrack is played quite prominently in this episode. Their borderline incomprehensible music manages to compliment the series quite well, since its insanity manages to fuse with the utter lack of grounding in the show.

 Anyway, in this episode, Naota has another gigantic phallic bump sticking out of his head. Also, the 8-foot tall robot with a TV for a head that crawled out of his head in the previous episode has been living with him and Haruko in his house. Furthermore, Mamimi has picked up some weird game about arson. Like Jack Thompson predicted, this game has been causing her to go out and commit arson for some reason. Also, a bit about Naota’s brother is thrown into the mix, just to force you to comprehend more.

Episode ends with that robot thing that came out of Naota’s head duking it out with another robot that crawled out of his head, with the help of Haruko. While I have no idea why anything is happening, I’m just going to assume that all will be explained later.

I wound up at the end of this episode with a headache, my eyeballs spinning, and having the pillows (the band) stuck in my head. I would say watching this show is akin to having your head sawed open, your brains removed and put into a blender, then put back into your head. Thankfully, it manages to evoke this emotion in a good way, if that were at all possible.

I believe this show has managed to prove itself interesting enough for me to commit to, and maybe by the end I’ll come out understanding a thing or two about what’s going on.

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NEXT EPISODE->

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Anime in Focus: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 episode 13

 <- This picture isn't NEARLY as exiting in context

<-Previous Episode

Hey, this episode managed to recapture a bit of the former season’s glory! If only I didn’t have to drudge through about 10 of the series worst episodes to get to it, I might have had a bit more faith in the series at this point.

This episode continues the arc about making the movie from the first episode of the first season, but rather than focus on the actual filming, (which is kinda boring, like episodes 10 and 11) it instead focuses on the behind the scenes drama, developing the cast a bit.

In this episode, we start by seeing the filming of the scene where Yuki sends a bunch of side characters to attack Mikuru. This is going well until Mikuru starts shooting lasers out of her eyes again, and we get a lovely image of Yuki taking measures to stop it. See above picture for details…. You done? Got that as ingrained in your memory as I do? Ahh yeah. ANYWAY, things get a bit awkward as Haruhi demands that the evil zombie whatever henchmen need to throw Mikuru in the lake. This looks fine on film, but the cast then realizes that this lake is probably polluted as hell. Nobody seems to mention the damage it could do to the battle waitress outfit, but nobody seems to care about that sort of thing.

The second part of the episode takes place at Tsuruya’s house, where they finish filming for the day. This is the part where Koizumi’s character takes Mikuru’s character to his house for some reason. While they are at the house, Haruhi has Tsuruya lace Mikuru’s drink with liquor, in order to enhance Mikuru’s acting skills. Unfortunately, Mikuru can’t hold her alcohol very good at all, which leads to her almost passing out. Haruhi gets pissed about this, and starts yelling at Mikuru.

Then finally, we see the moment I’ve been waiting for since about 3 episodes into the first season. Kyon gets fed up with Haruhi treating Mikuru like her plaything, gets his fist ready, tells Haruhi she’s an annoying jerk, and gets ready to whack her… But then Koizumi intervenes, and stops Kyon from smacking Haruhi. If this was back in my days of Kyon x Mikuru shipping, I’d be so exited about this. However, the movie converted me to Kyon x Yuki. Still, I was quite exited to see Kyon finally stick up for Mikuru.

Oh yeah, for the rest of the episode, things are a bit awkward between the brigade members, for obvious reasons. Koizumi gives out a speech about the nature of the universe to Kyon, and discusses his opinions on opposing Haruhi with Kyon, and we get a bit on the plot.

Episode manages to be very solid. I wish more of the second season was like this. While I thought the music felt a bit off in some scenes (Do they only have one dramatic track?) for in some parts, the music didn’t seem to suit the gravity of the situation, particularly in a segment at the lake. Thankfully, the fleshing out of the characters made up for this flaw. Believe it or not, I’m actually EXITED about the next episode, which hasn’t happened since the first episode of this season.

Coming soon! Episode 14

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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 on AMAZON (reserve now!)

Anime in Focus: Retro edition- Captain Harlock (1978)

This show is available for free legally on funimation’s website HERE

Well, after seeing the most badass trailer ever at AX, I decided I should do some research on this show from the 70’s.

The first episode is actually kinda bland unfortunately. I was pretty disappointed. The show starts out with an exposition about how humanity has dried up the oceans on earth and turned to the stars for hope now. Then we zoom on over to our protagonist on his space ship, combining the medieval wooden pirate ships with a Star Destroyer. Clearly the ship belonging to a man of good taste. We then see our lead, a man with both an eyepatch and a huge scar running across his face. Clearly, the potential for massive amounts of manliness is here. Sadly, this does not appear in this episode. In this ep, we see the ship fire off a bunch of space harpoons at the evil empire’s ships, freezing everybody on board. They then take their food, and dump out the loot. This is all done effortlessly and with almost no confrontation.

The second part revolves around Harlock keeping a promise he made to a little girl. However, in order to fulfill this promise, he has to appear publicly, and infamous space pirates are usually not popular in public places. Harlock’s sense of honor, however, seems to compel him to see this little girl, on what we are shown is the anniversary of somebody’s death.

Unfortunately, the issue with the military is solved in the most boring fashion possible, with almost no suspense about what is going to happen.

Hm, with this first episode, I’m quite weary about watching a second one.

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FLCL (Fooly Cooly or Furi Kuri): The big review

Well, it’s time to review that anime that everybody wanted me to watch because it offended them on a deep level for some reason.

Since this series is only 6 episodes long, I decided it was imperative that I watch it, if only get everybody to shut up. Fortunately, I actually enjoyed the series, which managed to be a plus.

This series is about a boy name Naota, who after getting run over by a lady named Haruko, who rides a yellow vespa, and his life is never exactly the same. From this point forward, weird robots start spouting from inside his head, which he must then combat with another robot that spouted from the inside of his head, along with Haruko hitting them with her guitar.

The whole thing plays like a big music video by the Pillows, the band that does the soundtrack for the series. This is to say that the plot flows with the style and consistency of a music video, along with the animation effects mimicking the style of one. The narration is all over the place, explaining the story in an abstract fashion that relies mostly on the viewer’s brain to put together. Basically, it’s not an experience that translates into words very well. It’s kind of like a painting. It’s definitely something that the artistic type needs to watch, just for the weirdness.

In order to understand the series, one can’t really analyze it at face value. It all makes more sense if you just zone out a little and watch as it goes by. It all makes more sense if you watch it that fashion. Watching it is like having your head sawed open, having your brains put into a blender, then put back in your head. Thankfully, this manages to feel good. Oh yeah, and apparently the series is about puberty and growing up, but by that logic, everything is about puberty and growing up.

Should you watch it? From what I’ve gathered, you probably have already. If you haven’t, go ahead and do it. It’s only six episodes, reducing the commitment factor. I will admit, it is very difficult to find the series legally, but maybe a friend has the DVD, or maybe they will show it on Adult Swim again (I don’t have cable)

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Anime in Focus: Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) episode 1

Well, I was feeling pretty random, and decided it was time that I watch that show about the Counto of Monte Cristo… IN SPACE! This is part of a relatively small genre of shows that revolve around taking those books you were forced to read in English class, and making them awesome.

This show starts out in a rave ON THE MOON on the same day as a holiday in Rome. We then see our main character, Monsieur de Morcerf entering an Opera featuring a singer wearing a bloody dress.  Out on one of the expensive balconies, a strange man with blue skin and fangs goes and throws her a bouquet of roses in the middle of the play. We learn that this man is none other than the count of Monte Cristo, the new self appointed noble that has all of the aristocracy talking.

Strangely, Morcerf notices that the count accidentally drops an incredibly fancy gold watch, and tries to give it back to him, unsuccessfully. Even weirder, Morcerf and his friend Franz have been invited to dinner with this mysterious count. During this they learn a bit about the count’s philosophies, and are invited to his private balcony to watch an execution. While Franz objects to this sort of thing, it inspires the rebel within Morcerf in order to go check it out, as he seems to greatly admire the count. Unfortunately, this admiration causes Morcerf to learn a bit about the Count’s sick sense of humor that he really wishes he hadn’t taken part of.

This show gets off to a pretty solid start, introducing a few characters and showing some of the more interesting facets of their personalities. The art in this show likes to take liberties at almost any chance it can get, as shown by the character’s clothes, which manage to appear borderline holographic. Furthermore, these clothes seem to react to light in ways that most modern fabrics would never react. Thankfully, it is quite obvious that the artist’s intended to use this style in order to spice up the visuals in the show, in order to give it its own highly recognizable style.

I will most certainly be watching more of this show sometime later.

Coming soon! Episode 2

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Anime in Focus: K-On episode 3

<-Previous episode

Well, I had a relatively large hiatus on this series, but I managed to get back to it.

This episode revolves around everybody’s ADD and Yui screwing up on a midterm. Thanks to this, Yui has to take a midterm, and this causes a major problem, seeing that she needs to pass the midterm before she’s allowed to pursue club activities. This is a problem, because the lite music club needs four members to operate, and Yui getting canned would cause them to get booted.

Unfortunately for the group, Yui has no attention span, and studying leads her to study her guitar when she should be studying algebra. While this is good for the club, in the short term, nobody is amused at how helpful it is in the long term.

Towards the final act, the group decides to get together and help her study, which according to Yui is akin to being stuck in a snowstorm. This leads to an interesting scene, but I never really got any feeling of suspense from the episode.

This episode was a bit boring towards the beginning, but got much more exiting towards the end. I certainly hope that the show gets more exiting as it goes along, because not much has actually been happening. I was promised cute girls with guitars, and they haven’t been spending nearly enough time with guitars in their hands Also, I hope to see more of the rest of the band, because we've spent plenty of time with Yui

Coming sometime: episode 4

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