It’s occured to me that the way I’ve been gassing over some of the series I’ve discovered in fansubs, someone might be of the opinion that I’ve just gone gaga over whatever my latest discovery is. “Melancholy is great! No, Ouran is! Wait, Simoun is the bestest! But Bakumatsu tops everything!” So this is a brief post just to clarify my opinions. Of the series that were broadcast pimarily (or starting) in 2006, I think:
- Bakumatsu (BKI) is the best overall, thus far.
- Simoun is the sleeper hit that no one expected to be of such high quality. (I came for the fanservice and got a story.)
- Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumaya is both my personal favorite and the most fun.
- Ouran Host Club is the goofiest, and probably best outright comedy.
- Kanon is the best game adaptation and maybe the best art.
Series that I saw that don’t get any top kudos:
Zero no Tsukaima, Busou Renkin, Pumpkin Scissors, Crecent Love, Coyote Ragtime, High School Girls, Karin, Inukami, Code Geass, Ghost Hunt, The Third, Galaxy Angel Rune (or Lune; anyway, one episode, after which I ran screaming from the room), Otome wa Boku, Toki Memorial (ditto GAR), Assate No Hokou (Zzzzzzzzz….). That’s not to say that they were all bad. Just not the best of the bunch.
Series I passed on:
- Tokimekki Memorial, GAR and Assate, after their 1st episodes. Galaxy Angel had some nice fanservice, but was too stupid to be allowed to ugly up my hard drive.
- Coyote Ragtime Show and Karin (both of which I stubbornly stuck with for too long)
- Girls High, after five episodes of worsening dreck. I felt soiled.
- Higurashi na Koro ni. No interest in homicidal emo lolis.
- Gintama. Deleted after watching ten minutes of the first episode, by which time there had been three nosepicking scenes. One such extended scene in the OP by the female lead. Ok, the scene in episode 2 of FMP:TSR is funny. Doing it over and over and over wouldn’t be.
- Witchblade, despite the fanservice. Or was it because of it? Dropped after 3-5 episodes, I forget. Deleted.
- Suomomo Momomomo. I found the premise of this show repulsive, the male lead an uninteresting jerk, and the female lead unattractive, not to mention a flatchested loli. Unattractive = bad. Flatchested = bad. Loli = illegal. Flatchested, unattractive loli should = illegal. (At least Louise was cute.)
- Mamoru-kun_ni_Megami_no_Shukufuku_wo! Attractive female lead, lots of fanservice, comedy series. Winner, right? Wrong. The jokes are too lame, predictable, and stupid, and frankly, I can’t stand the way the male lead is drawn. Everyone else is “normal” but he looks like an escapee from Speed Racer. I ought to be able to keep watching just for the fanservice (which is plentiful) but I can’t. Dropped after two or three episodes, went back recently to rewatch and see if I liked it any better. Didn’t.
I need to slow up on the fansubs. That’s about $1k if this stuff is all licensed and I buy every DVD. Ah well, DrH. is bored and wants to destroy the enemy in Dawn of War, and I wouldn’t mind that diversion myself. Later all!
OT, sort of: when I was a kid, the answer I most hated hearing from my parents was “Later”. They didn’t say “no”, they said “later” — which meant they implicitly granted to me all the points I made about how something was worth doing, and yet somehow or other I still didn’t get what I wanted, since of course “later” never happened.
Dr. H is going to write about Misaki Chronicles “later”, isn’t he? I guess 14 years of raising the SSB has made an accomplished parent out of him.
*snicker* I was JUST thinking about that myself…..