So, yeah, it took me a while to finally get this thing wrapped up. I guess I should try harder to get my reviews started during Christmas break, but we’ll see how well that goes while I’m trying to squeeze in my last minute movies and finish off ongoing games and anime series before December 31st. (I was SO close to wrapping up Phoenix Wright...). Either way, this is still my personal catalogue, so it really doesn’t matter other than that I finally logged it! Yay 2007!
Afro Samurai - 9/10 - Everything it promised to be! Samuel L. Jackson starring in an incredibly over the top blacksploitation anime! I really hope they are making a longer series of this.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 2 - 10/10 - Still not anime, but still top notch excellence, the further adventures prove to be even more enthralling as the series takes a very different turn from most Nick toons.
Azumanga Daioh - 8/10 - Basically a series of miniature skits (based on a strip comic of the same name) featuring an all schoolgirl crew, this one managed to be hilarious and touching at the same time without really veering into the typical echi style the premise would suggest. I should really read those comics.
Bleach (Soul Society Arc) - 6/10 - I liked how this show started and where it looked like it might be going through the first dozen or so episodes as it had pretty cool characters and nice short arcs that only lasted 2 or 3 episodes each. Right about the point I decided I’d watch one more arc and call it quits they pulled a doozy on me and started the REAL first story arc that lasted until episode sixty something. I saw it through, hoping it would turn up the awesome, but I can’t say I was entirely well rewarded. Nifty, but I’m done.
Full Metal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa - 9/10 - This was an awesome movie, and a fantastic finale to a series that already rated really high in my book. They wanted it to stand alone for people who hadn’t seen the series, but its really hard to recommend it if you haven’t had a chance to enjoy the show. On the flip side, it may tie up some loose ends, but this is far more than just an ’extended episode’ like the Cowboy Bebop movie could be considered. I could only wish that every series had a send off like this!
Full Metal Panic: 2nd Raid OVA - 9/10 - A short, one shot, incredibly funny OVA just as a little salute to a series that grew on us and to give a little more screen time to everyone’s favorite captain, this was a great show! I really hope they package it with the Second Raid box set.
Gatekeepers - 7/10 - This show started off with more gusto than the length of the series could maintain. It was pretty cool concept wise and was kind of a fun ride, but I can’t help but think it would have been better at about half the length. One of the big selling points was knowing about the OVAs that take place a generation or so down the line. I’m looking forward to checking those out shortly.
GunBuster - 9/10 - Its not fair to list this as something I saw just this year since I was technically introduced to it back in 1989 or so as the first cartoon I ever watched with subtitles, and also the first one whose subtitles got in the way of the boobies (also the first one with boobies). It would take me about 10 years to finally see all six episodes of this one, and despite first impressions (or perhaps because of them) as well as its over the top nature, I was really endeared to this show about space, life, and devotion. I’ve never seen anything else that even came close to the touching drama of lost time they captured in this short series. That, plus the giant robot kicked some killer ass!
Happy Lesson - 7/10 - A silly show whose premise could not be ignored, Will and I had to see the comedy that erupted from a harem show based on having a harem anime with five teachers/adoptive mothers (one of which even seems to be younger than the main character). We were right, it was ridiculous. Now we’ve got to check out the Advanced and Final Lessons!
His and Her Circumstances - 7/10 - Having spent the year slowly reading through the Kare Kano comic as well, I felt intrigued to get back to this show that I’d let fall by the wayside so long ago. Now having read the comic, I see how Gainax was pretty much the perfect pick to animate the show, with extended pauses and a lot of single focus shots that obscured everything except the character in question, it was really about the individuals, and for the most part, the story was really cute. Unfortunately they ran out of season and ran out of comic before hitting the 26th episode, so we’re kind of left hanging right before they get to the school play. Which is a shame, because I really liked that play.
Jubei-chan 2 - 10/10 - The first Jubei-chan was unexpectedly funny, so we kind of entered this series with some expectations, but those were quickly blown out of the water as the ridiculous gags were blown out of the water by some incredible action sequences tied together (or torn apart) by some really intense drama. This show really, REALLY ended up taking the cake last year!
Kanon - 7/10 - As an opening number to what would become Moe Monday, a few of us started sitting down to the "cute" shows, starting with ones that are based on dating sims (eroge or otherwise). Kanon was a good short place to start, 13 episodes of adorable that we busted through in two sittings (almost more than Will could take), it was a good starter to get used to Kyoto Animation’s shows, all of which we’ve been interested in. It felt a little bit scattered, probably because it was trying to cover all the story arcs instead of focusing on one or two of them, and ended up a little rushed and disjointed. I can see why they went back and remade the series only a few years later with 26 episodes. We’ll compare notes on that one shortly.
Koi Kaze - 8/10 - This ends up being a hard one to peg, dealing with strong but incredibly awkward drama. Overall I wish it were paced a little bit better, or that we got to see a little more of the resolution, but in the end it was one of those really good shows that I can’t really recommend to anyone.
Mahoromatic - 8/10 - A series I’d had tucked away for far too long, we only busted it out after I picked up the first volume of the manga which ended up spurring Will into buying all 7 volumes. He may be ahead of us in the story, but that didn’t stop the first season of Maho from being as exciting and endearing as I’d hoped. Some of the action sequences also really show their ’post-FLCL Gainax-ness,’ if that is any kind of description... Oh well, now that I own the box set, I’m sure we’ll get to check the rest sometime soon.
Nanaka 6/17 - 7/10 - As a weird concept that I’d actually misinterpreted, Nanaka was on the verge of being one of those shows I couldn’t stand to watch because I hate certain kinds of behaviors. It took a little while to get into the groove of the scenario, but Nanaka ended up being pretty cute. Definitely a proper fit for Moe Monday.
Origin: Spirits of the Past - 7/10 - Right out of left field, I never saw this one coming! The story has a bit of the old fashioned cheese to it, but overall crafts a pretty cool world. The animation and music were pretty awesome as well, I just wish we could get past that ultimate weapon...
Paprika - 8/10 - I’m a little unfairly fond of Satoshi Kon’s stuff, already owning all his other movies and having also finally gotten around to Paranoia Agent, so it goes without saying that I liked this flic. He has this fondness for a ’twist’ to be revealed in his work and by this point I guess he knows it because his red herring was so glaringly obvious that the truth was completely invisible until it popped out. Now THAT I didn’t see coming. Paprika somewhat resembles the structure of Paranoia Agent, so you kind of know what you’re in for, but it also has the coolest animated fat guy I think I’ve ever seen.
Paranoia Agent - 9/10 - Satoshi Kon’s 13 episode series (as opposed to his normal format of movies) was a really cool, if exceptionally different experience. Almost every episode has a different main character and so many of those episodes are spend building a specific lore that its the fiction itself that becomes the focus for progression rather than any of the characters or the story. That was a really weird end, but it was a totally worthwhile watch.
Portrait de Cossette - 7/10 - The term "gothic lolita" can absolutely fit in the tag line for this strange kind of ghost story. We only get a little of the story in the three episodes, but this is what we’ve learned to expect from OVAs. What’s there is stylized and cool, but unfortunately not very fulfilling at the end.
RahXephon - 8/10 - Chris and I started this at the beginning of the year about the same time as Bleach. Right about the time that my interest in Bleach started waning (and the aspect of at least a hundred more episodes stopped being appealing) RahXephon started really pouring on the kind of intrigue that I enjoy in a series. Unfortunately, it seems Chris felt exactly the opposite, getting bored with RahXephon, but more interested in Bleach, even with the problems that plague a serialized show, so poor RahXephon fell by the wayside until I wrapped it up myself, much later. I can see where a friend of mine got the idea of referring to it as "what Evangelion should have been," but I have to disagree. I can see similar concepts, but this was a much more ’artistic’ show about passions and prejudice where I still favor Eva for its focus on neurosis and miscommunication. Overall, RahXephon was excellent, and I’m glad I got to finally see it. I just wish it hadn’t taken so long, or that I hadn’t had a preface like that when going in.
Robot Chicken: Season 2 - 9/10 - Not much I can really claim about this show that I haven’t before. Maybe its just the cheap animation, or perhaps its because it tends to be fantastic animation, stuck onto familiar toys set in vulgar sketch comedy, but there’s a special charm here that just can’t be translated.
Slayers Return - 9/10 - It had been a while since I saw any Slayers, and I forgot that I guess I never had seen any of the movies beyond the first one, so this was a pleasant surprise. I’d forgotten how good Slayers was at taking a fantasy concept and making it both epic and comedic at the same time. This is definitely a worthy follow-up to the first movie, and since it isn’t trying as hard to show off that its actually a movie this time around, I think it actually does it one better.
Slayers Great - 8/10 - Following right on the heels of Slayers Returns, we popped in another one shot flic for Anime Night and were treated to the same kind of unexpected comedic gold I’ve remembered to appreciate. The great golem battle was fairly priceless. Seeing both of these movies was enough to convince me it was finally time to order the Slayers Try DVD set so I could finally finish watching that anime.
South Park: Season 9 - I loves me some South Park, and I was thrilled to get my hands on two more seasons worth of shows that were on the air after I’d stopped watching TV. Granted I caught a couple of them through the internet when pop culture demanded that I catch up, but its always great fun to bring these things home and enjoy them with the crew. They may be headline appropriate at the time they air, but their story is still sound, and the references still ripe even this far after the fact.
South Park: Season 10 - What did I JUST tell you?
Tales From Earthsea - 4/10- The Studio Ghibli film directed by the son of Miyazaki unfortunately didn’t seem to be able to live up to either name. This was an unfortunate attempt to derive a formula from previous Ghibli movies and apply it to a fantasy setting that already had its own set of rules in place that ends up giving us a disjointed kind of peak into something that could have been cool if it had been properly pushed in one direction or the other. Overall, it was just kind of a big let down.
Tekkon Kinkreet - 6/10 - I suppose there were some decent merits to it, but all I can really say is that this must be what happens when you let an American direct an anime feature. Perhaps the director had a stranger ideal of what "anime should be" than I’m used to, or maybe the story was just a weird adaptation from the beginning, but this is one of those times I can actually agree with Will that it felt a little to much like it was TRYING to be artsy.