Shameful Otaku Secret!

In which I start down a bad path

Ever wonder what pure execution looks like?

People talked a lot last season about the obvious highlight, True Tears, being a victory for execution over brilliant ideas. And it’s true: believable characters, subtle interactions, and emphasis on mood and atmosphere made it more than a typical anime romance, even if the story was basically unremarkable. But what happens when the Shonen/action genre is executed with that kind of skill? Well, obviously subtle and believable are not the words you’d still want to be using.

Substance will make a drama work, but action needs Style. And hypothetically, I’d require a ton because I hate action shows. I swear to god my wife watches more InuYasha than I do, and she’s a fairly normal person when it comes to TV (not to mention has never fallen into the Shonen demographic — I hope — and is neither fat nor crushing on Richard Cox. But I digress, as the thought of InuYasha always makes me do). I have tried so many times to enjoy Bleach (why?), only to realize that half-hour could be better spent waxing my nipples.

So why am I so stoked? You’ve probably heard by now, but BONES’s Soul Eater (based on the manga) is so fat with style (and with no small amount of RAD) that it’s threatening to pop out of its drawers.

Story

Shibusen University or something to that effect was founded by Shinigami-sama to create death weapons to stop the world from falling out of balance and being devoured by diabolical demon thingies called Kishin. Each weapon must feed on souls to gain its power, and travels with a human partner. Soul Eater is such a weapon in training, and Maka is his human partner. In order to become a full fledged Death Scythe, Soul Eater must eat 100 messed-up souls, but the final one must be a witch’s.

Shinigami-sama watches on as they make their attempt at number 100, alongside Maka’s dad, a Death Scythe himself who’s in the process of becoming estranged from his wife and daughter (he’s got a cheatin’ heart).

Thoughts

This thing is fucking wild! As is typical of the genre, there’s a very simple premise and a series of systems and rules for making things needlessly and superficially complicated. Also, people talk at each other a lot during fights. But there’s that execution. Of course I love BONES, they might be my favorites in fact, but here they’re attempting to outdo themselves. They’ve forsaken any concessions to reality in favor of a highly stylized and over-the-top version of their unmistakable look. Traditional animation is mixed with CG, but just to make 3D cartoons — it’s a billion years removed from Macross Frontier’s high-tech slickness or Blassreiter’s awful awful awful video game outtakes.

Comedy-wise, it’s a lot less successful. It remains to be seen how strongly they’ll rely on visuals, since jokes aren’t very good and only sight gags seemed to really pull off well.

The previously mentioned subs were actually not far off from my minimum requirements, I’m guessing speed was on their minds more than proofing. But beggars and choosers, all that.

All in all, it’s dumb as hell but it’s dumb fun — I’m happy to have seen it, and I officially want more.

Up until today, my requirements for the week have been:

1. A copy of Soul Eater episode 1.
2. Words at the bottom of the screen that vaguely resemble English.

I have never watched any of their subs before, but Anime Enlightenment Network seems to win. Frankly, I don’t care if Corky from Life Goes On does the translation and Mister Fucking Magoo is typesetting, I am going to watch this thing first chance I get.

Return of the Pizza Hut Revolution

While I’m not pooping my pants, aka Macross Excitement Level over this, I’m glad to see Pretty Boy LeDouche come back to attempt to liberate helpless Japan from the wrath of the honkies in the name of siscon once again.

Like a bitch!

Story

Lelouch is still in school in the Tokyo settlement, but things seem a little off. He has a younger brother Rollo, his gym teacher looks a lot like Villetta (and her name’s… Villetta?), and he doesn’t seem to have a Geass Eye anymore. Plus, he’s back to gambling on chess games.

Something is... off.

Most of the Black Knights are in prison, including Colonel Toudou. The remaining ones have fallen under the temporary lead of C.C., who makes it her mission to recover Lelouch. Her scheme to lure him into a chess game and have undercover bunny girl (yar?) Kallen grab him doesn’t go quite as planned, but in the end it’s a successful recovery after a good bit of chase stuff.

Yes, with chest! Er, chess...

With a bit of a smooch, C.C. restores Lelouch’s memory, and it’s bye bye Brittanian soldiers.

This time, its a SEXvolution! yeeeah.

It seems that the Emperor/King himself has now employed Suzaku, and possibly V.V. is on his side as well, so I’m guessing this season will be a little more of a personal fight staged over the backdrop of the revolution.

Thoughts

This episode very cleverly paralleled Geass’s first one, with the re-awakening of Lelouch’s powers happening in a similar scene to the initial bestowing of them. But Zero’s introduction, complete with gothy poses and Mikuru Stare, was played for far more of a Fuck Yeah Factor than anything previously in Geass.

Dance with me! We shall go to the Goth club and smoke clove cigarettes and do that taffy-pulling dance while they spin Sisters of Mercy records! FOR NIPPON!

We still didn’t get a real answer to the cliffhanger of the first series. It seems that Suzaku and Lelouch did indeed come to a truce in order to rescue Nunally, but what happened after is anyone’s guess. How would they be a match for V.V.? Lelouch already used the Geass on himself, so how was his past wiped so effectively? Perhaps C.C. did it to hide him. And speaking of all that, where is Nunally?

Kill whitey! Wait did I really capture a tooltip in my screenshot? Where is QC in here?

Overall, the animation quality is still up to par, not to mention HD now — say what you will about Sunrise (aka Studio Gundam) but they have the cash to keep things consistent. I think Geass is one of the more stylish things they’ve ever done, in spite of the somewhat Gundam-esque mechs. Scoring is still epic and dark, theme songs (both by Orange Range of Bleach fame) still unimpressive. I think the only one I really liked was the first ED by Ali Project, and even then, you heard one of their songs and you’ve heard ‘em all.

But let’s hope they keep track of what made Geass so cool to begin with: It’s an action-packed robot fight, a dramatic collection of emotional cruelties and deadly secrets, all wrapped in a Death Note-style rumination on what happens to people when they gain unspeakable power. Oh — and a Pizza Hut commercial.