Bah. Humbug.

I had a post last week about the various episode 2’s that I had caught, but violated my cardinal rule: “Save early, save often.” Of course I lost it.

Haven’t been feeling much like blogging; work is being a pain right now, and I’m preparing for a big weekend. So, let’s see, what can I say, briefly.

Akane-iro: A yandere instead of a tsundere is a bit of a change, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to keep this show interesting. Katagiri is a sweet girl, until things have even the slightest chance of turning romantic or serious, then the pain starts. The Mariya-clone that’s obviously spying on the central couple, and the action interludes with the secret-agent parents might though. I figure the student that’s spying on the kids is sent by Katagiri’s father; that’s the only explanation for her acting to isolate Katagiri and the “Geno Killer,” then leading the other students to them.

Index: Seems ok, but I’m not sure it’s living up to the expectations everyone seemed to have for it. Slow pacing, a lot of exposition this episode (3). It had a lot of background, but frustratingly, not enough. The sword-babe we see in the previews has showed up as of the end. Her gig is that she wears blue jeans with only one leg. Cute, but “whatever.”

Macademi Wasshoi: As if. Would someone fansub episode 2 already? Jeez. This is worse than Kamen no Maid Guy (which was finally completed this week).

Kannagi: Forget what I said about spending time with these characters. Nagi has gone insane. For a goddess, she’s a klutz. An emo klutz. A noisy emo klutz. An egotistical, noisy, emo kutz. You get the drift. Edit: but in episode 3, there’s an interesting twist at the end. She’s still an egotistical, noisy, emo klutz though. Except when attacking Jin. Of course.

Toradora! The “Great Thaw” is over. Aisaka has pretty much taken over Ryuuji’s life; he cooks and cleans for her. Supposedly still hung up on the other guy, it’s obvious she’s now considering Ryuuji as hers; every time he looks at Minori, the girl he wants, Aisaka violently assaults him. Worse, it looks like Minori is also hiding serious problems behind her extroverted personality. She’s working like, five jobs, and gets a little freaky when locked in a shed with Ryuuji.

Kemeko DX: If the girl would get the hell out of that ugly robot suit in order to romance the guy, explain what the hell is going on, and why MishimaCorp is the enemy, this might be entertaining in an absurdist way. As it stands, well, I can’t. Stand it, that is. Just another “drag hapless guy through weirdness” schtick.

Ga-Rei Zero: Another week, another dead team. Well, half of one, anyway. Enough already; If you want lessons on how to kill people and make the audience care, go watch Divergence Eve.

Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Kurrogane no Linebarrel, Today in Class 5-2; Casshern: Sins, Black Butler, Shikabanehime. All in the bit-bucket. Trying to decide if I want to watch episode 2 of Chaos;Head.

Edit: So I was just bouncing around on Brickmuppet’s blog, and I ran into something relevant to Kannagi. . You see, Jin’s father is absent, for reasons never mentioned, so Jin lives alone, in what we southerners would call “a tin shack.” It’s actually somewhat better than that on the inside, but there are hints of rust and disrepair about the outside. This is all the stranger, since it’s obviously situated in a nice neighborhood; in episode two, when his classmate arrives, you can see some very nice apartments behind her. Now, I live in Houston, which has no zoning, but even here, that’s a bit remarkable. Turns out, it’s nothing unusual. Brickmuppet had posted pictures from his recent Japanese stay. See the 17th picture in the series.

Where the facades were not traditional, hey were often corrugated. Like many other places I had observed in Japan, (and like most of the US south) there are very wild differences in income level from door to door. Which makes for a more eclectic neighborhood.

Indeed.