Project Otaku Powerlevelling Parts 10-12
Project Otaku Powerlevelling continues!
By the end of May, I had already completed 12 series--well on my way to finishing all 50 shows. But I was running into a different problem. I was running behind on the NEW anime I had picked up for the Spring season. So Traveler and I picked three OVAs we could finish within a couple days, and spend the first week of June catching up on the Spring shows. We picked: Iczer-One, Compiler, and Dangaioh.
Let's start with:
Iczer-One
See, I should've known this series would suck when I checked MAL and a reviewer talked about how the series fell into the horror genre. But it fooled me with the random act of lesbian sex at the start. (Male readers are thinking: "Would've fooled me too...") Just as randomly however, we find innocent people being ripped apart by scary looking tentacle monsters from the inside, the main character is having nightmarish hallucinations, and my fun RAPIDLY comes to an end.
I was MASSIVELY pissed about this. My anger could have been ameliorated though, had the main characters been better. There are two--Iczer-One, the title character--she's basically a creation of the villains who found a conscience and a lesbian crush. That, would be our other character, Nagisa. When I think about it, she's insanely realistic.
Nagisa cries her way through about half the series, and runs for the other half. They kill her best friend for ep. 1 and her parents in ep. 2, so I'd say she has good reason. Realism's crap for GOOD action stories though. You keep wanting her to finally put her powers to use and kick the crap out of the villains, but the writers are content to keep her realistic,annoying me to no end.
Does Iczer-One have an upside? GOOD QUESTION. Personally, in my mind I alter series with "writer power" so they turn out better. I revive characters, send characters to give smackdowns to villains, etc... (It's weird, but whatever. I don't control how YOU watch shows, do I? Leave me alone.)
I was GOING to reset the world and erase the villains from existence, in Iczer-One's case. I never got to do that though, as ICZER RANDOMLY DID IT FOR ME!!! I don't know WHY, but...whatever. Everyone alive makes me happy. NEXT SERIES.
Dangaioh
So after the WTF-ness of Iczer-One, I thought Dangaioh, which is classic super robot, would cheer me up. It starts off strongly enough, so initially I believed I was right.
The opening is vaguely Kamen Rider-ish, as the main characters wake up in a mad scientist's lab, suddenly finding themselves with strange new powers, about to be sold to a group of pirates that have control over the galaxy to be their newest weapon. As they haven't been brainwashed yet, all four of them escape in a group of futuristic jets that just so happen to have the ability to combine to form the giant robot Dangaioh.
Over the course of the first episode, there's basic introductions, trips to different planets, and a battle against an arch-nemesis that ends with a solid victory for the heroes. At this point, I'm thinking Dangaioh's a great series, and wondering why it never got a television series. Upon watching the second, and even third episodes, I'm more convinced this should be a television series. Likeable characters, good mecha, and a villain to smack around.
But then I hit that fourth episode. The one focusing on our "main character", and the last episode. Ugh. I should've seen it coming; the title of the episode was "The Demonic Revenge of Gil Berg", Gil Berg being the villain the heroes stomped in episode one. My memory's fuzzy, but I seem to recall the episode going something like this: The heroes land on the main character's planet, join the resistance group fighting against the series villain, reveal of the main character's "true identity", return of the villain in the episode title, and then...one-sided fight scene against Gil Berg's souped up mecha and two other villains' mecha against Dangaioh. Gil Berg destroys the mad scientist's space ship, ruins Dangaioh and leaves the heroes stranded in an asteroid belt, swearing to kill them all.
....And the show ends. Yes, seriously. Not even Mitsuko Horie helping to sing "Cross Fight" couldn't fix this. My solution for THIS series? Send those idiots back to their respective planets, and drop a crapload of Smart Bunnies armed with Custom Blue Lantern Rings for the villains. Why bunnies? Humor. The last thing the villains will see is a glowing, adorable little bunny. (Well...the last thing is probably a giant blue robot, but still.)
Typing this ALONE annoys the crap outta me.
Compiler
"Compiler?? THAT'S a weird series to pick, Sage! How'd you come to that one?"
I'm glad you asked. See this lady? Well, she made THIS song, which is one of my favorite anime openings ever. I thought it might make sense if I watched the show.
...Months later, I'm completely lost as to what to make of it. I thought I was missing some episodes, as things are pretty confusing from episode to episode, but near as I can tell, there are only two episodes. The story centers around two characters, Compiler and Assembler, and the two guys that somehow ended up with them. Both episodes have completely different tones, and start their stories "in media res"--it pretends as if we already know the characters and the relationship between all of them.
The first episode centers on the relationship between the title character, Compiler, and her chosen boyfriend, who's only memorable trait is "womanizing jerk", so we'll call him that from now on. It's your basic episode in a romance story, where the girl wonders if her jerk crush will ever...not be a jerk. The only difference being Compiler doesn't spend so much time making googly eyes over him or being a passive agressive bitch over it, and pretty much spends most of the episode ignoring him. It's not a terrible episode by any means, though the episode is somewhat obsessed with making you realize how classically sexy Compiler is. Little scenes with her wearing a robe everywhere, or always "just coming out of the shower"--we get it! She's hot, move on.
The second episode switches things up completely. Assembler and Compiler take Spineless Almost Shota and Womanizing Jerk to the movies, where they get into a fight with their old nemesis (so the show tells us) who have, because of their failure to capture Assembler and Compiler, been turned into women. A lot of "are you a homo?" jokes are tossed around, which is kinda weird, but the fight is slapstick action.
I forget how it ends, but neither episode bothers to come to any sort of actual conclusion. It's nice to say I've seen this anime, but after I've gotten this posted, the whole series goes back to being a random anime with awesome opening and ending themes.
By the end of May, I had already completed 12 series--well on my way to finishing all 50 shows. But I was running into a different problem. I was running behind on the NEW anime I had picked up for the Spring season. So Traveler and I picked three OVAs we could finish within a couple days, and spend the first week of June catching up on the Spring shows. We picked: Iczer-One, Compiler, and Dangaioh.
Let's start with:
Iczer-One
See, I should've known this series would suck when I checked MAL and a reviewer talked about how the series fell into the horror genre. But it fooled me with the random act of lesbian sex at the start. (Male readers are thinking: "Would've fooled me too...") Just as randomly however, we find innocent people being ripped apart by scary looking tentacle monsters from the inside, the main character is having nightmarish hallucinations, and my fun RAPIDLY comes to an end.
I was MASSIVELY pissed about this. My anger could have been ameliorated though, had the main characters been better. There are two--Iczer-One, the title character--she's basically a creation of the villains who found a conscience and a lesbian crush. That, would be our other character, Nagisa. When I think about it, she's insanely realistic.
Nagisa cries her way through about half the series, and runs for the other half. They kill her best friend for ep. 1 and her parents in ep. 2, so I'd say she has good reason. Realism's crap for GOOD action stories though. You keep wanting her to finally put her powers to use and kick the crap out of the villains, but the writers are content to keep her realistic,annoying me to no end.
Does Iczer-One have an upside? GOOD QUESTION. Personally, in my mind I alter series with "writer power" so they turn out better. I revive characters, send characters to give smackdowns to villains, etc... (It's weird, but whatever. I don't control how YOU watch shows, do I? Leave me alone.)
I was GOING to reset the world and erase the villains from existence, in Iczer-One's case. I never got to do that though, as ICZER RANDOMLY DID IT FOR ME!!! I don't know WHY, but...whatever. Everyone alive makes me happy. NEXT SERIES.
Dangaioh
So after the WTF-ness of Iczer-One, I thought Dangaioh, which is classic super robot, would cheer me up. It starts off strongly enough, so initially I believed I was right.
The opening is vaguely Kamen Rider-ish, as the main characters wake up in a mad scientist's lab, suddenly finding themselves with strange new powers, about to be sold to a group of pirates that have control over the galaxy to be their newest weapon. As they haven't been brainwashed yet, all four of them escape in a group of futuristic jets that just so happen to have the ability to combine to form the giant robot Dangaioh.
Over the course of the first episode, there's basic introductions, trips to different planets, and a battle against an arch-nemesis that ends with a solid victory for the heroes. At this point, I'm thinking Dangaioh's a great series, and wondering why it never got a television series. Upon watching the second, and even third episodes, I'm more convinced this should be a television series. Likeable characters, good mecha, and a villain to smack around.
But then I hit that fourth episode. The one focusing on our "main character", and the last episode. Ugh. I should've seen it coming; the title of the episode was "The Demonic Revenge of Gil Berg", Gil Berg being the villain the heroes stomped in episode one. My memory's fuzzy, but I seem to recall the episode going something like this: The heroes land on the main character's planet, join the resistance group fighting against the series villain, reveal of the main character's "true identity", return of the villain in the episode title, and then...one-sided fight scene against Gil Berg's souped up mecha and two other villains' mecha against Dangaioh. Gil Berg destroys the mad scientist's space ship, ruins Dangaioh and leaves the heroes stranded in an asteroid belt, swearing to kill them all.
....And the show ends. Yes, seriously. Not even Mitsuko Horie helping to sing "Cross Fight" couldn't fix this. My solution for THIS series? Send those idiots back to their respective planets, and drop a crapload of Smart Bunnies armed with Custom Blue Lantern Rings for the villains. Why bunnies? Humor. The last thing the villains will see is a glowing, adorable little bunny. (Well...the last thing is probably a giant blue robot, but still.)
Typing this ALONE annoys the crap outta me.
Compiler
"Compiler?? THAT'S a weird series to pick, Sage! How'd you come to that one?"
I'm glad you asked. See this lady? Well, she made THIS song, which is one of my favorite anime openings ever. I thought it might make sense if I watched the show.
...Months later, I'm completely lost as to what to make of it. I thought I was missing some episodes, as things are pretty confusing from episode to episode, but near as I can tell, there are only two episodes. The story centers around two characters, Compiler and Assembler, and the two guys that somehow ended up with them. Both episodes have completely different tones, and start their stories "in media res"--it pretends as if we already know the characters and the relationship between all of them.
The first episode centers on the relationship between the title character, Compiler, and her chosen boyfriend, who's only memorable trait is "womanizing jerk", so we'll call him that from now on. It's your basic episode in a romance story, where the girl wonders if her jerk crush will ever...not be a jerk. The only difference being Compiler doesn't spend so much time making googly eyes over him or being a passive agressive bitch over it, and pretty much spends most of the episode ignoring him. It's not a terrible episode by any means, though the episode is somewhat obsessed with making you realize how classically sexy Compiler is. Little scenes with her wearing a robe everywhere, or always "just coming out of the shower"--we get it! She's hot, move on.
The second episode switches things up completely. Assembler and Compiler take Spineless Almost Shota and Womanizing Jerk to the movies, where they get into a fight with their old nemesis (so the show tells us) who have, because of their failure to capture Assembler and Compiler, been turned into women. A lot of "are you a homo?" jokes are tossed around, which is kinda weird, but the fight is slapstick action.
I forget how it ends, but neither episode bothers to come to any sort of actual conclusion. It's nice to say I've seen this anime, but after I've gotten this posted, the whole series goes back to being a random anime with awesome opening and ending themes.
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