Final fall ‘08 rundown
Maybe!
Chaos;Head
Anime Diet called it Welcome to the NHK meets Higurashi meets Satoshi Kon. I think that’s a good assessment — the story concerns a hardcore hikikomori with delusions/hallucinations who sees a possible grisly murder and experiences some nice reality warping — but Chaos;Head’s first episode feels like less than the sum of its parts. I can reference all those things if I want, but the execution didn’t grab me at all.
What did I like? The premise could make for some cool psychological horror.
Potential problems? Animation wasn’t too good, and from what I’ve seen it’s got a long way to go before it’s Satoshi Kon.
Tytania
Noboru Ishiguro (Macross, Legend of the Galactic Heroes) is back with a space opera that bears a lot of resemblance to LoGH on first glance. The rich Tytania family is basically on a rampage through the universe, repressing everyone they come across with their giant space fleet and endless stores of fancy tea.
What did I like? It really resembles an old-school space opera.
Potential problems? The CG was really slick but the standard animation was anything but impressive. Of course there’s the whole “keeping characters straight” issue, and by that I don’t mean heterosexual because there’s probably very little danger of that— I mean keeping track of who’s who. Of course LoGH probably holds the record, and even it printed character names on the screen at least 27 times, so I’m not that worried.
Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka
So there’s a guy who’s misunderstood by his classmates. They all think he’s a tough guy. One day he ends up in a bizarre pseudo-relationship with a girl played by Rie Kugimiya, who will abuse him constantly over the course of the show. Have you heard it before? Maybe even this season? Well, it’s ok, cause this one’s a VN adaptation. Wait, what? Fuck. No more listening to Riex (he likes Rosario a little too much).
What did I like? Not much, really. Character designs —especially the H2O-style hair — bothered me a bit, but there was lots of thighservice. Um… yay?
Potential problems? Aside from obvious? In two episodes there has already been one “whoops I landed with my hand on your boob.” Aya Hirano as the younger sister (oh yeah, strong siscon undercurrent here) and Kugimiya as Miss Tsun-tsun, along with all the other well-known seiyuu in this could collectively fill the Hindenburg with all the helium it sounds like they’ve been huffing.
Soul Eater
I don’t talk much about it but I’m always watching it, so I wanted to take a second to mention a series that for 27 episodes has yet to hit an extended slump. The action is creative, the animation is solid, and even the stuff that doesn’t contribute to the overall plot is super entertaining. Here’s to a second half that keeps it up.
The only other thing I haven’t seen that I plan to is the new Hokuto no Ken. I don’t know why. Guess it’s just been too long since I saw anyone’s head get punched to the point of explosion.
Kurozuka.
Kurozuka.
KUROZUKA.
The chick in Chaos;Head looks demented. Did she just slash some one up to bits? That would be awesome …
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