Kimikiss: I’m not sure what to make of this show yet. It pendles from being pretty good to some plain old cringe material. The would be lead couple and the damn frogs, owners included, are responsible for most of the cringing though and whenever they’re not on screen I’d say it’s more than a decent watch. I find it funny how Kazuki, who I from episode one thought would be the typical comical relief sidekick, and Eriko, who I immediately deemed to be the stuck up bitch character, has turned out to be my two favourite characters of the show. Kazuki because he’s actually trying to move forward and Eriko because she turned out not to be the ice queen she first seemed, instead she’s just a bit, eh, unaccustomed to socializing with people.

I’ve been watching a lot of Major recently, or rather, I’ve pretty much only been watching Major except for about three shows of the current season and I’ve developed some kind of love-hate relationship with the show. It’s good, very good since it managed to keep my attention for the 78 episodes that have aired so far but it is a shounen sports anime and comes with many of the frustrating elements you commonly see in any shounen anime. One of the major (no pun intended) disappointments is the lack of progression. Everything stays the same, the characters, the challenges and the relationships. The only thing that seems to be moving forward is the age of everyone, but they all still act pretty much the same.

That’s not a completely fair statement though, but pretty much all of the character development is given to the side characters leaving the protagonist Goro nothing more than a shounen stereotype. This is a real shame because when he is allowed to shine you can’t help but stare excitedly with wide open eyes if only for a moment before he does something typical and predictable. His fighting spirit is very inspiring, especially from a fictional one dimensional character, and it feels great whenever he manages to do the impossible with that smug arrogance he has. The backside is that you just feel annoyed whenever he fails and acts all surprised time and time again without changing his attitude, or realizing that noone is invincible. Despite this he has his moments when he takes a step forward but it is always set up to happen, and always with the help of someone else. I don’t think he ever opened his eyes himself.

This is not my biggest gripe however. It’s no big secret I’m a rather avid fan of romance and this is by far my biggest disappointment with the show. The canon pairing of the show has not only not progressed at all, it has actually regressed to being less than from the very beginning! There has been much gnashing of teeth as Goro has shown no interest in his would be love, if anything they have only drifted further away from each other. Now, you’re probably thinking “what did you expect?” and I know there can be no love-relationships in an anime that’s supposed to go on forever. Still, I can’t help myself!

If I have one fault it is being too critical, and this applies to Major as everything else. Taking everything in consideration I have watched 78 episodes in about two weeks, not feeling turned off by it at all and I’m totally looking forward to the fourth season in the beginning of 2008. Hell, I could count the shows that held my interest (or would have if they didn’t end, for that matter) for that long on one hand and still have a pair of fingers to spare. For what it is and what it sets out to do Major is extremely good. Watching the teams Goro is in grow and overcome obstacles on the way is like I said earlier is really inspirational and despite them overcoming impossible odds doesn’t feel contrived even once.

I think the reason why I like Major so much is because its obvious selling point, the games themselves, are as exciting as they are. Everything from the batting to the slides and dives are all very well animated but only are they nice to look at, each game is deep with lots of tactics and strategies that don’t feel all that far fetched from reality. Granted, I know nothing at all about baseball, having not seen a game even once but most things seen in the show seems plausible and I think I would actually understand what was going on should I watch a game of baseball one day. Effects are also used sparingly which helps keeping things realistic. The most appearant one is the turbulence created around Goro’s pitches to emphasize the speed of the ball and this really only helps the animation that otherwise would easily look pretty stale.

All in all Major is the best sports anime I’ve watched to date and if the fourth season manages to add more depth to Goro it is a hall of famer in the making.

Claymore was one of those very rare shounen series that I actually enjoyed on a higher basis than “I’m watching it because I’m bored”. It had all powerups and predictable fights that you can expect from a shounen show but yet it was somehow different from the usual fare. Despite the fights following the predictable three step pattern with the usual powerup at the last stage they were still exciting.

There was one large shadow looming over the whole series however, that would ruin every second of the show when it appeared. I’m talking about Raki of course. He was the most annoying character I’ve ever come across in anime hands down. I was seriously cringing through every single scene he appeared in and an episode that was completely enjoyable before could turn into a torture to watch. His whiny voice together with being completely useless made him a completely unsympathetic character for me.

It came as no surprise that he played a major part in the crappy ending Claymore had. The underlying story throughout the whole show was Clare’s search for revenge; it was the very reason why she struggled and strained to become faster, stronger and more powerful. Right at the end Raki enters her life again after being away for so long only to spit on her very raison d’être, trying to take away the glorious and sweet moment of victory from her, and for what? He pities the demon because it has had a sad past. I’m sure someone somewhere came up with a saying for this very way of acting. It’s a small victory that in the end he had little impact on Clare’s awakening, instead it was Jeane that stole the show.

Why must all good action series have these contrived happy endings. Was it too much to ask for some anger and some determination to finish that last chop of the sword, not only ridding the world of a great danger but also fulfilling her promise to herself and to Theresa. Instead her misplaced mercy will probably cost hundreds of lives in the future.

Despite my bitter tone I really did enjoy Claymore and the one screaming weakness it had, Raki, was absent for a large portion of the show letting me enjoy the nice animation and adrenaline pumping powerups to their fullest. The ending had all the makings of a second season, but people that read the manga say the anime deviates in the last few episodes, making the probabilities of a followup season smaller.

Nodame Cantabile has ended and for once I’m feeling content with an ending. Not disappointed, but not overly excited either and I think that pretty much sums up my overall feeling for the show too. Even though I’m happy with the show in general it took some getting used to because of skewed expectations as I expected something romantic, but after accepting that there would be very little of that I started enjoying the show for a completely different reason; I actually started looking forward to seeing Chiaki progress in his music career.

To be completely honest I felt that Nodame was a very one dimensional character and I had a hard time thinking of her as a real person, and because of this I couldn’t really feel any romance between her and Chiaki. The exception might be the last episode, and the ending which I felt was pretty fitting and nicely done. It didn’t feel like it came out of the blue either, despite how I felt about deepness of Nodame’s character. For most of the other episodes however she felt lacking in substance and only had gag or slapstick moments, and generally just used for comedic relief and I felt this if anything was a bit of a disappointment. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the comedy parts she brought forward, but I think for her prominent role in the show it wouldn’t have hurt to flesh her character out more and earlier. Despite this disappointment I learned to appreciate the show for other reasons as mentioned above.

Now Chiaki on the other hand was a really interesting character that I think they really succeeded with. They even managed to avoid being trite with his constant successes that is a danger in every show where the protagonist succeeds in almost everything he does by showing how extremely hard working he was. Every waken moment was spent practicing or thinking of music and how to improve himself. They didn’t attribute his success to him being some kind of fantasy genius and this is what really clicked with me. No matter how natural something comes to you, you always have to practice to be the best.

So is Nodame Cantabile among the best shows I’ve ever seen? Not really, but even if it’s not it’s close enough to the hall of fame to be considered a must see if you enjoy slice of life kind of shows. It managed to deliver with almost all episodes and was always among the first shows on my too-see list for the season plus it managed to have a pretty good ending for a slice of life show.

In my previous post I made some comments on the slice-of-life turn that Seirei no Moribito has taken, and how I didn’t think it would last. Well, here we are three episodes later and it’s going as strong as ever. I should be thrilled, but I can’t help but feel a little bit split in my opinion about it at the moment because I think the show is starting to lose focus. Now slice-of-life rarely has that much focus from the beginning but generally speaking there’s always some kind of coherence whether it is a chain of events closely related or something as large as the changing of seasons.

I think Seirei no Moribito has lost most of such coherence, and is starting to become very episodic, plopping us down at random points in time with no clue of what has happened up to that point. I don’t even know how long has passed since Balsa and Chagum moved into their house; it could be weeks or even months for all I know. I’m tempted to say all this is because each side story they tell takes to long i.e. the whole episode showing is very little of what’s going on beside the particular event of the episode but that wouldn’t be the whole truth.

I loved the smithy episode and didn’t even once feel it was dragging but I can’t say the same about the following episode, almost fully dedicated to a gambling game which I felt added very little to the characters or the story. Then came episode 11 and I had to re-evaluate my opinion again, because it was simply awesome. I loved the mystical atmosphere they managed to create in the other world which seemed almost normal except everything was increased in magnitude.

So my point with this is that while I might enjoy a single episode for what it is they need to string the episodes together in a better way if it’s going to leave a lasting impression on me. Hell, even something as simple as relating to how much time has passed since the last episode would be a great improvement and help create the illusion that they are living a peaceful life between the episodes. Despite my minor grievance with this Seirei no Moribito remains one of the shows I look forward to the most each week because I think it has some very interesting and lifelike characters and a great setting and atmosphere.

First of all, this show is pretty damn amazing. At this moment I can’t find a single fault with it. From the perfect pacing to the wonderful characters, everything just fits together seamlessly. The buildup of Chagum’s anxiety during this episode was done very well, with the little details hinting that something was on his mind to the moment when he cried with relief as he realized he didn’t have to live all by himself. It acted as a reminder that despite his collected and strong outer appearance he is still a child.

I have to say the show has taken a rather unexpected turn though now that Balsa and Chagum have found a house for themselves and are apparently set on living the peaceful life of a farmer. From the rather action filled introduction episodes I would never have guessed they’d be settling down in some farming village a couple of episodes later. Is Seirei no Moribito going all slice-of-life on us I wonder? Oh if that were only the case.. I still get all warm and fuzzy inside when I think of the episodes from Scrapped Princess where Pacifica had lost her memories and were living together with that guy that got the worst “get out of here, we’re done with you” death in the history of anime.

Even though I would love some slice-of-life in a historical/mythical setting I don’t think the show will be going in that direction for long, especially since the signs of the drought were still there and it will not take long for them to figure out that Chagum is still alive. Besides, it would be a complete waste to remove the action from a show that has the most awesome fighting scenes ever!

Oh man, Otani was incredibly dense this episode, even by his standards. You’d think he’d get it after two people, including Risa herself, said it straight up and when everyone except him knows who Risa likes. Even the painfully obvious hints Risa offered at the end of the episode very barely got through. Still, it made for a completely awesome episode that had me in stitches from start to end.

Otani’s cluelessness was simply hilarious and seeing him getting more and more frustrated until he finally snapped in the cafe was priceless. I felt sorry for Risa in between the laughing fits though. She was having a hard time telling Otani from the very beginning and the way he didn’t even consider the possibility of her liking him must be pretty rough. I am so looking forward to the next episode and his reaction now that he finally understands. At least I think he does. Probably. Maybe..

I initially stayed away from Kaze no Stigma because the poster girl for the show reminded me of Shana, with the fiery hair and obvious tsundere nature - nothing wrong with tsunderes mind you, except for a select few who just get on my nerves. I was quite content to just forget the show and never think about it again until I read a comment Kabitzin from Sea Slugs made on either his site or some other site, I can’t quite remember. His comment made consider giving the show a chance after all since he usually has pretty good taste when it comes to anime.

Said and done, I watched the seven episodes released spread out over two days and to be completely honest I’m not sure what to make of it. I mean I’m totally enjoying it and can’t wait for the next episode but the quick turns in mood from one scene to another and sometimes even during a single scene has me completely dumbfounded. For example the scene where Kazuma reveals to Misao he was responsible for her brother’s death. At first they’re joking around about sleeping together in a very lighthearted way with Ayano giving some funny reactions, then all of a sudden he drops the bomb on her and she tries to stab him with a knife she kept hidden in her sleeve.

Later Ayano see them together on what appears to be a date and a comedic stalking sequence follows which end in Misao once again trying to take Kazuma’s life, but Kazuma is never in any real danger and the whole attempt has a slightly humoristic air about it. And finally at the end of the episode there is a rather emotional scene and any doubt you might have had about Misao really being scarred by her brother’s death are blown away.

At this moment I feel these frequent changes in mood will get in the way of any character development but at the same time doesn’t have to detract from the entertainment value of the show. I can’t help but feel it will be a bit contradicting in the end however, because of the rather dark and sinister underlying themes. I mean, the way the house abandons anyone they deem too weak is pretty tragic when it comes down to it and I sort of hope they will capitalize on this later on in the show.

Now what? They’ve removed the crazy from Gurenn Lagann and with that effectively removed any appeal the series had for me. The prospect of sitting through the rest of the episodes watching Simon “grow and mature” shounen style feels about as exciting as watching paint dry. Throw in a romance between Yoko and him and we’ve reached absolute rock bottom. On the brighter side, at least I’ll have an extra 20 minutes each week from now on.