Kimi + Boku = Library War Love? Instead of part 3 of Spring 2008 First Impressions which I promised once I got to Toshokan Sensou (which I obviously have), I'm holding that back for a while and branching out to give this awesome show the love it deserves in an individual post of its own! I do want to do my own small part pimping out this show but usagijen has done a mighty fine job so far and
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So far, Kurenai is the only show that I think might equal my top shows of the past year (true tears, ef, Blue Drop, Hitohira, Lucky Star), but this is a very broad season, with many good shows, several of which could develop into something great. I covered 24 shows in a previous post. Here are ten more that have debuted since then.Nijuu-mensou no Musume -- Hirano Aya is at her best, acting and singing the ED in this promising retro anime telling the story of a girl who willingly joins a famous thief, in order to get away from the hell she is enduring with her step-parents. Full review.Real Drive -- Strong Production IG animation and a complex and interesting Shirow Masamune (Ghost in the Shell) plot make this a promising show. Directed by Furuhashi Kazuhiro (Chevalier D'Eon). The cast includes Fujiwara Keiji and Kawasumi Ayako. The character design features strikingly large-hipped women, and we see the same man at 25 and at 80. The look has great clarity and the plot doesn't.Toshokan Sensou -- More wonderful animation from Production IG in a promising story of a girl joining the para-military organization that defends freedom of publication from an opposing pro-censorship organization. The strong outlines used in some of the charcter dsign are fascinating. Echoes of Planetes in the relationship between the leads. Inoue Marina (Yoko in Gurren-Laggan) shows why she got 20 roles last year.Net Ghost Pipopa -- Kimura Shinichirou (Karin, Mahoraba) directs this surprisingly entertaining kids' show about a boy who fears the Internet and three "Net ghosts" who become his companions. Fine cast includes Satou Rina (Negi Springfield), Shiraishi Ryouko (Hayate), Arai Satomi (Kozue in Mahoraba), and Yahagi Sayuri (Karin). oHagi (Yahagi's nickname) is one of my favorites, and shows her stuff in ep1. What a voice.Golgo 13 -- Could have been made in 1985. Static animation well used to tell the story of a sniper hired to shoot a hijacker. Brutality, blood, and expressionless super-male faces -- but I enjoyed it.Junjo Romantika -- Want yaoi? You got it. The dominant male forces the brother of the man he loves to accept being mastur*ated. And that's in the first five minutes. Later, they both regret the brother's becoming engaged. Yes, there is a story in there somewhere. Directed by Kon Chiaki (Higurashi), with a great cast including Sakurai Takahiro, Canna Nobutoshi, Itou Kentarou, Kishio Daisuke, and others.Kyouran Kazoku Nikki -- Madly funny story of a guy who is dragooned into being the "dad" of a "family" made up of dangerous alien descendants who need to be socialized to humans in order to stop them destroying the world. Top cast includes Fujimura Ayumi, Kondou Takayuki, Hirohashi Ryou, Tomatsu Haruka, Hanazawa Kana, Satou Rina. Fujimura-san shows why she is becoming a favorite of directors. Hanazawa-san has one of the two or three most moe voices in anime (she and Sasaki Nozomi are at the top of my list).Kaiba -- Wonderful, surreal animation from Yuasa Masaaki and Madhouse. Here's a selection of words from posts on AnimeSuki: existentialist, Dali-esque, theatre of the absurd, stream of consciousness. The words all attracted me, but I ended up bored when I actually watched the show. Too much for me, but if your taste is good enough, you may be as thrilled as some other people are.Uchi no San Shimai -- Slipping in under the radar is this animated version of a popular blog on child-rearing, showing the amusing parental travails of a family with three girls under ten. I'll need a sub to really understand the dialogue, and I can't even find a Chinese sub yet. Simple animation, but cute and interesting.Himitsu - Top Secret -- A secret technology allows police to read the minds of murder victims and find the killer. With Seki Tomokazu, Namikawa Daisuke, and Nonaka Ai. This would be a show to watch, if there weren't so many other good shows already.
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OP Theme: 「Special Days」 by Goto Yuuko - AVI version (32MB) | PSP version (16.9MB) This three shows in a day is starting to kill me. It's getting really hard to cover all of them at once. Anyway, I'm not as impressed with this episode as I was with the last one. Having said that, it's not completely bad either. To begin with, at least the animation quality is still consistent. I mean Kei's character design was fugly last week and still is fugly this week. Everyone else, however, looks quite decent and if you like the double lines that characterizes the character design of Toshokan Sensou, you actually get to see that too here minus the boring military stuff. The opening theme is not that great. I don't understand why Goto Yuuko chooses to employ that voice while singing even though she has her own mature voice to use instead. Story-wise, I am also not happy with the fact that many things in this episode are basically repetition of the first one (ie. character design, story of the week, etc). Although to be fair, Ouran Host Club did the same thing as well week after week. Overall, this episode is not that great but I'm just grateful that the animation stays consistent.
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OP - Watashi no Machi, Ashita no Machi (Hitomi Takahashi) - pleasantly acoustic song, fuzzy show footage visuals. ’salright, I guess. ED - changes (Base Ball Bear) - what do you reckon a Base Ball Bear does? Is it some kind of mascot? Anyway, another pleasantly acoustic song, this time with running and [...]
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Written by TheBigN I turn 22 today. Have some cake with Miyako. In terms of this season, I’ve been looking forward to Library Wars (because knowledge is power), Macross Frontier (because it turns on a dime), Allison to Lilia (because of Kino’s author), Kaiba (because it looks and sounds interesting) and Kamen no Maid Guy (because GAR [...]
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So Library War makes its premiere, and needless to say, I loved it!! *____* As expected from Production I.G. (who Seleria and I fondly call PIG), the animation is superb, almost movie-like, I'd say. I loved the thick outline style they used on the characters, as some bloggers have also pointed out. And both the OP and ED songs are <3333 Hitomi Takahashi’s voice sounds so much like YUI I would not have been able to tell the difference if I didn’t know she was singing the OP beforehand o_O. And it goes without saying that Baseball Bear is <333 Despite the rather serious Library vs Media Improvement Brigade elements of the show, the mix of the action and humor, as well as the potential romance tidbit seemed all natural and not forced. Expect more action in the later episodes of the show, while still maintaining its touch of humor and romance (aka overall entertainment value). The prince-charming aspects of the show make it seem as if we’re watching a fairy-tale of some sort xD The pacing was also great, though I was a bit sad that they cut short some of the comedic parts, like the Judo sparring scene and some bits and pieces of dialogues, but it was understandable that they can only do so much in the span of ~23 minutes. I’m not so sure if I can have the time and leisure to make deep frying posts this time around, but we’ll see~
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Toshokan Sensou With Noitamina, I just knew that this series would be worthwhile. Toshokan Sensou has proven to have the best soundtrack this season, and with Production IG, the art looks terrific. This series also smartly spent its first episode fleshing out its main characters, instead of focusing on a story-heavy start. So instead the characters [...]
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Click pictures to enlarge them. Spoilers ahead so please be cautious. 더 크게 보시려면 클릭. 네타가 있으니 주의 하시길. Production IG...;;; I have to say. You impress me. I think this is the first time I laughed out loud watching any of the production IG stuff. This seri..글 전체보기
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So I just found out (for whatever reason, I’m slow) that there’s going to be a Spring anime about all out library war! Apparently the military has gotten involved in the censorship of certain books. So going to library school means basic training and learning to use a rifle to protect books. There’s a lot of [...]
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