Jumping in Headfirst

Whew! Let's get caught up again. Our first full series this time, hitting 24 episodes. Maburaho Having gone through several OVAs that both I and Traveler thought were...below-par, we switched to a series that I had began on my own back when it initially came out in 2005, but never finished it. One of our later additions, I think I mostly added it because I was curious as to just HOW it ended. For those of you who have heard of this series already, it's a harem, yes. Deal with it. I watch harems sometimes. Anyways. Maburaho, to me, has quite a bit going for it. To start off, there's only three girls. The absolute smallest harem one can have and still qualify to BE a harem. As a result, Maburaho's three girls--Miyama Yuuna, Kazetsubaki Kuriko, and Kamishiro Rin, are all given a chance to develop properly. They begin rather stereotypical but eventually grow to be three distinct characters who come to care about the lead for different reasons that all reflect their ...

For part seven, Traveler and I took out another set of OVAs, though sadly...well...click the jump. Initially, our next series' were planned to be Gravion and Gravion Zwei. But, we ran into a roadblock: ...Gravion is a terrible series. We REALLY hated the opening song's lyrics, the creator of the Gravion creeped us out, and the animation was terrible. Worse yet, the story was incredibly repetitive. Monster appears, use a weapon. Next episode, new monster appears, weapon from the last ep doesn't work, but its okay there's a NEW weapon and THAT works. Rinse, repeat. The fifth episode had a bad encode, and we took it as the opportunity it was to replace both series with...something not crappy. (Current choices are Melty Lancer and Sora no Kakeru Shoujo.) Anyways, after realizing we wasted two days on Gravion (long story), we had to make it up somehow: Our answer was to get two OVAs and wrap them up quick to see if we could make a bit of time. Dirty Pair: Affair of N...

No need for the opening song, I'm starting the show without credits today. Subject: Variable Geo. Variable Geo Variable Geo is regrettably, the first series replacement we've had for our project. The plan (if you want to call it that) was to watch V.G. Neo, and we planned to make it the back-up plan in case Pretear sucked. (Of course, we didn't find OUT Pretear sucked until 9, after which point the time sink effect took over...) But as I found links for V.G. Neo, I saw screenshots, and the opening seconds of the opening episode had some guy raping one of the fighters. ...Yeah, not in MY Variable Geo. It was not until I got the chance to do this re-watch that I realized...V.G. is a *very*...not, female-oriented, but, its a universe where the women are plainly in charge. There's no question about this. Even traditionally male roles are given to females. The protagonist is a female. Her best friend is a female. The first opponent in series like this is generally a...

So I've been doing this for two weeks now, and I've yet to run into a crappy series. Are my tastes that good? As it turns out... No, they're not. Or at least, my prediction powers are not that good. The marathon continued with this little...ugh. Pretear I'm not sure HOW Pretear got added, but for whatever reason, my partner-in-crime Traveler (who really needs a site) suggested we should watch it next. I agreed, but with the caveat that, if we hated the first three episodes, we would throw it out and watch Variable Geo instead. ...But the opening third was actually not that bad. Himeno Awayuki is the Pretear, the girl who can make the red snow, white. The Pretear is the only being alive who can battle against the Princess of Disaster, a being that uses evil seeds to steal Leafe, the essence of life on Earth and on Leafenia. As a result, the Leafe Knights (protectors of Earth) are forced to find the Pretear when the Princess of Darkness begins to make moves to des...

Three more of these (including this), and I'll be all caught up. Here we go! Gakuen Tokusou Hikaruon Another of the 80's anime series I chose. My first thought upon seeing the description for this series is... Who thought THIS up, and how come no one told me?? A single episode OVA, Gakuen Tokusou Hikaruon is pretty much..the anime Metal Hero. Seriously. The kid does a henshin into an outfit that looks exactly like Juspion, his bike has super-powers (Super. Bike. The villains don't stand a chance.), and the battles take place in alternate realities (a part of many of the first Metal Heroes). Within a mere thirty minutes, Hikaruon managed to give me everything. Introduced the main character, his sidekick (a hot teacher...apparently), a conflict with the villains, a highly creative fight scene, and a resolution. I almost thought it would cop out and go cliffhanger on me a la Eien no Aseria, when both the rescue fodder *and* the female sidekick had been kidnapped and t...

Part 3 in your mouth! Swallow, BITCHES! Ah, humorous urban colloquialisms. Anyway, let's get to it. My brain froze for a bit, but I'm back with the reboot and hopefully coherent thoughts on this series. A little behind so here's me *almost* catching up. Friday night/Saturday morning I marathoned Mobile Police Patlabor with my trusty friend Traveler. Mobile Police Patlabor This series is straight out of the eighties. Not in a bad way, either. The OVA is not an action series, so it relies on the characters' relationships to make it through seven 30 minute episodes. And, to be honest, it works well for them. The first episode is somewhat boring, but after the characters are introduced properly, the other six episodes are a breeze. ...Such a breeze I performed a marathon on all seven episodes in a single night after coming home last week on a Friday after midnight. >_ Patlabor reminds me of Gunsmith Cats: Both the premise *and* the show is set up to allow for...

According to Variety, Power Rangers has returned to its original owner, Saban . This is interesting for a couple of reasons, but first... If I haven't made it clear by now, I'm a *huge* fan of Super Sentai, essentially the original, Japanese series from which Power Rangers is adapted. I could write out a list a mile long as to WHY I enjoy Sentai, or I could show you this, the roll call for 2007's Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger, versus 2008's Power Rangers: Jungle Fury. Sentai: - Poses look like actual martial arts stances (they aren't, but still) - Beautiful music playing in the background, almost orchestral - Descriptive phrases during their poses explaining the difference in each character's martial arts philosophy that is almost poetic. Power Rangers: - Random poses that look like...every other pose you've ever seen in Power Rangers. - Generic rock music in the back ground. - Phrases that say...fuck-all about who each character is. Feel free to rag on me for...