Mahou Meido Meganekko

Way overdue in fact, but it’s time to loosen the purse strings a bit. My pusher, er, RACS, was just sent the following order:

All obligation buys this time:
Last 3 DVD’s of Code Geass R2
Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens, disks 1 and 2 (which was cheaper than the set, go figure)
Strike Witches

That’s all for now. Smaller than some of my orders … Otoboku and Ouran Host Club still get the cold shoulder. The former was just… too unbelievable, and the latter…. ok I feel guilty, because it was a surprisingly good show, but it just doesn’t have any rewatch value for me. The joy of watching it was in discovering the unexpected depths to all the characters (well, except for Honey, who was just weird). But once you discover all that, what do you do? There’s not much else…

And Queen’s Blade shall not grace my optical drive. My hard drive is still complaining that it feels cheapened by the few episodes I watched. (Related: I’m sort of hoping that they left a lot of the fog IN for Strike Witches; some of them are way too young to be that ecchi.)

Update: I am such an idiot. Strike Witches was not an obligation buy, because I didn’t bittorrent it. I bought it from Crunchyroll, back when they were doing DTO.

Oh well, supporting dead Japanese anime companies counts too. Right?

Been sitting on my wallet too long. Went ahead and ordered the full first season of AMG, which is coming out in a thinpack on Sept. 1. Grabbed the movie, and a half-season of Busou Renkin while I was at it.

It was a bit of a waste to do it that way, since I already have the first 4 CD’s of AMG season 1, but I didn’t want to risk ordering used copies on Amazon. Besides which, I’d rather support Robert than Jeff Bezos.

Anyway, watching the video kind of brought back the parts of the series I liked best; Urd and her schemes, the ridiculous sempai, Skuld being cute and exasperating at the same time; even Sayoko. I always felt sorry for her though; it becomes really obvious that she’s lonely, and as she interacts more with Belldandy and Keichi, it shows.

Update: And that’s why I like Robert. Already shipped, even the one that wasn’t supposed to be out for two more weeks!

Funny thing is, I’ve found myself going back and watching more older anime than just AMG. I watched FS/N the other night, and I also loaded up Inuyasha. Trying to decide on what next; maybe even DearS or Grenadier. This season just isn’t keeping my attention. The only series I’m following are Pandora Hearts, Princess Lover, Bakamonogatari, and bits of Melancholy S2 and Spice & Wolf 2. I’m only looking forward to Bakamonogatari, each week. Pandora’s problem is that Oz is basically a child for most of 20 episodes. Melancholy just hasn’t got the same pizzaz it used to — I think they’re directing Aya Hirano more restrained, and the animation just isn’t up to KyoAni standards. Princess Lover doesn’t even have a plot worth mentioning — though it’s a guilty pleasure. The girls are really cute, and the protagonist is cut from Taro Hanayuko cloth — plus he’s old enough to appreciate their charms.

Random net storms. Super-slow download speeds, worse than a basic 54k phone modem. Pings of 200 to 1,000. Disconnects, where it just decides it’s not going to talk to the DSL modem at all, requiring multiple restarts, resets, and reentry of all the contact data. All-night bittorrent sessions, hours to download game patches. And a history like this and this.

Goodbye, Linksys, you’ve overstayed your welcome. Hello D-Link. You roxxor.

ADV (through the Anime Network) has made the entire first series of Divergence Eve available for online viewing here. Just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock, the genre is “big-breasted sci-fi horror” and despite the first hyphenation, it’s not a “dumb tits and blood” show. Essentially the writers took a damn good concept, good execution, and a great story, then slapped humongous jugs on all the girls in order to sell it. The CG sucks, but that’s its greatest flaw.

However, after several minutes of investigating, it appears that the offer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — because their player is defective. I could not get it to play, despite having javascript enabled and the latest flash player installed; it keeps saying “Javascript/Flash Required Your IP: 70.240.xxx.xxx Your Country:US.” It didn’t matter whether I used Firefox or IE. The screen looked a bit small, too, about 320×200, but if you can work it out, maybe there’s an expand option. It’s definitely worth a watch if their site will just work. There are several other series available, including Angelic Layer and RahXephon.

Although honesty compels me to admit that ADV is not doing itself any favors by having the website be defective. They’d have been smarter to put it on Crunchyroll.

Update: And just like that, I come back a few hours later and it works fine. Fullscreen option looks better than Crunchyroll’s too.

I just wish that Catgirls Gone Wild commercial was for real…

So. I have a very large need for light distractions right now.

Code Geass bundle #2: Discs #3 and #4, taking me through episode 17. Obligation buy.
Tenchi (Original TV Series): Watching GXP recently got me interested in the original series again. I expect to be disappointed. I remember tearing my hair out over what seemed to be filler, thinking, “good lord, is this EVER going to go anywhere!” Of course, my expectations are different now. And hey, I originally dismissed GXP as a lame effort to cash in on the name with a spin-off, so who knows? (C’mon, three words: Tenchi in Tokyo. Tell me I wasn’t completely justified in thinking that GXP was a rip-off.)
Neo-Ranga Because Steven can’t find all the unknown gems! Or, uh, crap.

Ok. I’m back outta here now.

Well, it was getting to be time.

Ordered Kanon, v. 6 to finish that series off.
Ordered Magical Witch Punie-chan. Because I’m evil and I like the series.
Ordered Saber Marionette J. It’s been hanging around the edge of my consciousness as a harem series I might actually like, and it seems to have a good reputation as a second-tier classic. Not a “great” series, but one good enough to stick around.
Ordered Battle Angel. This one was really, really iffy to me. See, I’ve got great memories of seeing it at a Nan-con in Houston years and years ago, when it was first imported. And I thought it was totally awesome, especially how the last fight was resolved, and the bittersweet ending. The problem is…

Every time I’ve ordered something I remember from back then, I’ve been horribly disappointed. I remembered Devil Hunter Yoko as being funny and cute; instead it was this ecchi-fest of dumb jokes and bad tropes. The Dirty Pair OVA’s had me climbing the walls. These dumb 19 year-bimbos are the top agents of the 3WA? Good lord, what are their bottom agents like? Wait, given the way they dress, that phrasing conjures up bad thoughts…. Ghost in the Shell movie? Damn, it’s slow and boring. Urasei Yatsuri? (whatever….) I couldn’t make it through the first DVD. Barely through one episode.

So here I am, risking perhaps the last of my treasured memories of anime from the 1990’s… (well, other than Lupin III, and I’m not sure those count). Maybe if I set the bar low, it will help…

Despite my need to restrict animé purchases for the next few months, as mentioned here, I broke down last week and ordered Haibane Renmei and a Witchblade DVD (to qualify for super-saver shipping), because Steven pointed out that it was probably now or never.

Well, that was Friday, and yesterday, it arrived, thanks to Robert’s usual efficiency. I haven’t cracked the box open yet though, because I’m still recovering from my illness; in fact, I slept from 7 pm last night to 6 am this morning. That’s very abnormal for me.

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