What’s up?

Well, you might have noticed that I don’t seem to be on much of a hiatus right now. Owing to the news of the 3rd, I’ve suspended all my other projects, because I can’t concentrate on them right now. That leaves me some free time. In fact, too much free time. I’ve given up on MMORPG’s; the grind really bugs me. So I’m blogging again, for at least a few days. I probably won’t be doing many screenshots, although I finally fixed the problem with taking shots from .mkv files. They were always defaulting to the first frame of the file. Nvidia came out with some new drivers a while back, and they turned the trick.

So anyway, I picked up two series in my last order: Neo Ranga and Tenchi Universe (TV series). I have finished neither one, and it’s not just the mood I’m in; they both were sub-par series.

The problem with Tenchi is that the TV series made some significant changes to the continuity, and these bothered me. Worse, the entire series felt like filler material. Yes, I expected that from the OVA’s as well, but there were fewer of them, hence less filler. I quit watching Universe just before the episode where their spaceship gets stolen.

Neo-Ranga. Sigh. It had some promising points, but it needed a better writer and director. I finally quit when I realized that the country that the sisters had become kings of could offer to pay for millions of dollars in damages caused by Neo-Ranga, but couldn’t pay the girls a simple stipend so they wouldn’t have to scrounge for money. Yeah, right. Worse, the confrontation with the Yakuza dragged on for too long, and didn’t ring true. The Yakuza do not involve outsiders in their feuds, especially if it means danger to the general public. (One boss made that mistake a few years ago, and his support evaporated. He ended up committing suicide.)

Then I picked up Elemental Gelade at Best Buy. Nothing exceptional, but not bad either. One thing; it shows that Soul Eater was not the first one to come up with anthropomorphic weapons. The Edel Raids and Sting Raids of this world are generally cute girls or women, and they all turn into fantastic weapon forms, although Sting Raids are often more in the nature of beasts. Cou, bumbling rookie of the Red Lynx Air Pirates, ends up with Ren, a blue-haired autistic girl that turns into a seriously badass weapon. She has a heart and mind of her own, and Cou is not exactly sure how to treat her… cue romance, some angst, a number of cute girls, and a well-paced story, as Cou swears to escort her to the legendary Edel Garden. Multiple parties want to control Ren, as she is a powerful noble of a lineage thought lost, and not everything is what it seems. Whom can Ren and Cou trust?

While I was there, I also picked up Black Lagoon, Second Barrage #003. Ok, this was not as hard core as the first DVD of the season was, but it was still pretty rough sledding. Russian mob vs. the Yakuza. No happy endings here, and a lot of blood. Is anyone surprised?

Deacon dropped off some animated shows for me, but they’re all American stuff, including the Clone Wars digital movie. I’ll watch it sometime.

Edit: ARGH! How could I forget: I watched Eve no Jikan earlier tonight. So far there have been only 3 15-minute episodes, available for free on Crunchyroll. The only thing wrong with this series is that there has not be enough of it. Thus far, it has been a superb show exploring the limits – and limitations – of Asimov’s three laws.