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HomeSummer Season: Disappointing to Say the Least
Amanda Liu July 30, 2007
I’m glad that I’m having a really busy summer. Or else I’d probably be really bored because this season is putting me to sleep. Literally. Anyways, I’m going to be doing my usual thoughts of my watch list with the new summer shows bolded. Oh and a list of the shows that I’m dropping and why.
Claymore
Episode(s) Watched: 17
Okay so I’ve completely jumped on the Claymore bandwagon by now but that doesn’t change that this is consistently gettting better and better. The anime is also surprising me by making arcs that I didn’t really enjoy in the manga really exciting. Not too many other series can do that. My favorite arc is coming up next and I couldn’t be happier.
Mushi-Uta
Episode(s) Watched: 4
Despite the fact that everything is focused on killer bugs, the creators have somehow managed to make Mushi-Uta a stylishly dark series with an engaging plot, complex setting, ethereal music, and excellent animation + character designs, and (surprisingly) school life scenes. If you’re only checking one series out this summer, check out Mushi-Uta. Oh and I would give Mushi-Uta 4 episodes before deciding to continue.
Saiunkoku Monogatari II
Episode(s) Watched: 3
First of all, I’m really happy there are groups brave enough to sub since my Japanese isn’t good enough to keep up with dialogue-heavy series such as this. That being said, while it’s starting off slow Saiunkoku manages to put some twists and a guarantee that the good things are going to come.
Darker than BLACK
Episode(s) Watched: 16
Well BONES has answered my prayers because I have found out all that I need to know about Eve. The arc after that also pleased me with the whole cast being featured together (for once). Unfortunately, I think the story’s going to go off in some unrelated random direction again.
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Seirei no Moribito
Episode(s) Watched: 15
I can’t lie to myself any longer and I have to admit that this show’s slow pace is boring me and I can’t keep praising it as #1 (if you haven’t noticed this watch list is going in order from best to worst). While I was happy that the fillers ended, they’re taking a long time setting up things. I’m hoping things will pick up but it seems kind of hopeless at this point.
Kaze no Stigma
Episode(s) Watched: 15
Despite the fact that this show is getting more retarded its also getting more and more enjoyable. I guess it’s one of those really bad shows that you just love watching because its so badly cliche but entertaining. So no matter how much I whine and wanna drop it I guess I’m going to stick with this show and Shoushu’s 101 attempts to get his daughter knocked up by Kazuma.
ZOMBIE-LOAN
Episode(s) Watched: 4
This is also a bad show but the fact that I read a bit of the manga and the badly-cliche-but-somewhat-entertaining factor makes me like it. Oh and probably the sad fact that most of the summer shows are so bad that this looks really good. I don’t see myself really sticking with this long-term but I do wanna know what’s going to happen next episode.
Romeo x Juliet
Episode(s) Watched: 15
This show has sunk to an all-time low. I know Romeo has no character development but sending him to a dull arc to the mines is not going to help no matter how hard you try GONZO. The only aspect that kept me awake during these two episodes is Benvolio x Cordelia. And the new ED. Other than that….it’s pointless.
***I watched Baccano! Episode 1 RAW too and while I got kind of confused. I’ll probably watch this too but I’m gonna have to wait for subs. Now onto the….
The Dumping Ground:
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Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Episode(s) Watched: 3
I know everyone keeps on raving on how this is the best gag anime ever and whatever but I honestly can’t find what’s so good about it. And I really tried to. While I admit the stalker joke in the second episode made me laugh, I sat through everything else with a frown on my face. The animation is pretty but everything else about this show puts me off. Especially that freaky guy’s face.
Devil May Cry
Episode(s) Watched: 4
So I knew that this show was purely going to be guy shooting at demons but it looked good at first. However, after a 1/3 of the show we’re still not going anywhere and it started to bore me. So yeah…Dropped.
Nanatsurio Drops
Episode(s) Watched: 2
Before watching the show I was really hesitant about this show. Right after watching the show I was like “OMG this is SO cute I’m so gonna stick with this”. Then 40 minutes after watching the episode I realized my little brother was poking me awake.
School Days
Episode(s) Watched: 1
I also can’t appreciate the “beauty” of this show that everyone’s been talking about. I find the story a lot more interesting by reading it on other people’s blogs rather than actually watching the episode itself. And that’s just sad.
Doujin Work
Episode(s) Watched: 1
To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in this show from the beginning but I thought what the heck. Despite this being only 13 minutes per episode, I somehow managed to fall asleep.
Moetan
Episode(s) Watched: 1
I guess this is all you can get from a book teaching Otaku to learn Engrish. There wasn’t anything about learning Engrish though. Instead, it was a bunch of jokes that failed to put a smile on my face.
Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho
Episode(s) Watched: 1
Again another fanservicey comedy that can’t even manage to turn my frown upside down. I don’t know what’s so funny about exposed body parts to be honest. I also heard that this loses its steam after the first episode like it had any.
CODE-E
Episode(s) Watched: 1
So this is some school story about a girl who can disrupt technology. Unfortunately, nothing happened except hearing the girl squeak annoyingly as she went around school. Honestly, I thought my school was boring. It’s still better than this.
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I believe myself~
Alex Papillon http://
July 30th, 2007 at 1:25 pmFrom your list, Mushi-Uta sounds like the only one I’ll pick up then (I’ll watch Devil May Cry anyway just because I’m a fan of the video games) apart from the ones I’m already watching, Darker than BLACK, Claymore and Seirei.
I haven’t watched far in El Cazador, but I sure hope it’s not going to go down the drain…
Amanda Liu http://
July 30th, 2007 at 1:39 pmYep Mushi-Uta is the only anime I’d recommend to anyone for the summer season. I just listed stuff like Darker than BLACK, Claymore, and Seirei no Moribito because I like to rant and rave and I keep on writing about them every month anyways.
I haven’t watched El Cazador but I heard it’s starting to suck so good luck -_-.
Alex Papillon http://
July 30th, 2007 at 1:55 pmYeah…Bee Train just can’t get it together. I’m still waiting for the last two episodes of Code Geass of season I. I’m going to force myself to finish watching it because it’s already on a rollercoaster to crap and it ain’t stopping anytime soon.
Karry
July 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pmThis list lacks Potemayo. Probably the only good summer show.
On the other hand, half of this list is Spring season, so…
psgels http://psgels.blogsome.com
July 30th, 2007 at 3:14 pmI’m a bit sad to see that there’s no Mononoke on this list, since that one’s my definite favourite for this season. El Cazador also turned pretty good, by the way, just avoid episode 17. -_-
Senna http://anime2manga.com
July 31st, 2007 at 12:01 amI’m very behind in watching the summer shows. … The only one I’ve seen so far is Zombie-Loan, and while I agree that it’s not really good, I also find its badness somehow entertaining and will probably keep watching for a while (it’s like anime junk food -.-;; )
Kabitzin http://www.seaslugteam.com
July 31st, 2007 at 1:53 amInteresting about Mushi-Uta ; I might have to give that a try. I also second the recommendation about Potemayo which is quite random and cute. I feel the same way about the shows you’ve ranked, and I’m also hoping that Seirei no Moribito picks it up soon. I’m not sure if I want to continue Zombie Loan; does it get better? Or does it get a lot worse (as shounen-ish shows tend to age badly).
El Cazador hasn’t really been going anywhere, but the part where Nadie hints that Jody has gotten fat was amusing.
Garrett Goluszka http://gandtheonehalf.animeblogger.net
July 31st, 2007 at 4:44 amMushi-Uta is one of the ones to watch this season, the techniques they use are just really nice, there are some shots that are just awesome, like the flashback going on as the person is going though the areas and the one part is grayed but she is in color. Though I do think you should watch more School Days, or watch the bad endings xD one or the other will bring faith
Amanda Liu http://
July 31st, 2007 at 6:26 amAlex> Well Beetrain is the studio behind Tsubasa so yes they are a fright.
Karry> Sorry I’m not into those cute moe type of shows and nothing about it interests me. I guess we just have different tastes. Oh and the spring shows are the ones that I’ve been talking about for the past two months so yeah…
pgsels> I was actually planning to try Monoke a little later. I was initially put off by the character designs (which is how I felt about Claymore at first) but I heard some good things about it so I’m considering watching it…After summer school ends and before I leave to Cancun. Oh and to be honest, I’ve never even watched El Cazador nor am I planning too.
Senna> EXACTLY! That’s the term for it! Do you mind if I take it from you? I’ll give you credit ;).
Kabitzin> 1. Mushi-Uta is the hidden gem of the summer season.
2. I heard Seirei no Moribito is only going to cover 1 volume which may explain the slow pace @_@.
3. Actually, I stopped really early in ZOMBIE-LOAN due to lack of scanlations. I heard it picks up from other people but I don’t really trust a lot of people so I can’t be certain XP.
4. Like I’ve said to pgsels, I’ve never watched El Cazador XD.
Garrett Goluszka> YAY! I’m glad someone else also appreciates Mushi-Uta’s amazingness (is this even a word?). I don’t know about School Days though because like I said I found it more interesting when I was reading everyone else’s summaries rather than watching the episode itself. I’ve already watched all the video game bad endings and I’ll probably watch the anime one (if they put it in).
Senna http://anime2manga.com
July 31st, 2007 at 11:31 am^_^ Feel free to. It’s probably not the first time it’s been used …
Alex Papillon http://
July 31st, 2007 at 1:02 pmBee Train did okay for Noir. It would be considered pretty good compared to Tsubasa. Heroic Age was bad too…in various ways.
By the way, Code E sort of sounds like that show Brace Face…
Back to Bee Train, they did the hack series and Avenger. That’s a pretty lousy track record.
Alex Papillon http://
July 31st, 2007 at 1:08 pmTerra E was okay but I never watched more than a few eps but I know it was reviewed in a podcast.
Before I forget, Amanda, is it okay if I add your post about Haruhi? You don’t have to write it in a paragraph format if you don’t feel like it. I just want to complete it sometime. Now…to nag Darren…
J/k…take your time.
Chris
July 31st, 2007 at 10:05 pmI see no reason to bash BeeTrain. They are pretty consistent in their works. All their shows evolve slowly and feel stretched out but either that’s okay for you or not. I must be funny because I like .hack//SIGN (not the followup-ups), Noir, Madlax, El Cazador and even Avenger albeit they are not exactly my favourite shows mostly because of a lack of depth but 90% of the shows I watched and still enjoyed are really worse than those according to my taste at least. Animation isn’t neccessarily a highlight of BeeTrain anime, they don’t handle action too well. The art is usually very nice though and you can almost bet your lif on the excellent soundtrack. I did not like Tsubasa though and that might be because it was a manga adaption in contrast to all other BeeTrain productions which were original works. So basically if you don’t like their shows, that’s fine but it doesn’t make them bad.
Claymore is still running, Darker than Black too, El Cazador also, Sayonara Zetsubo sensei has just started, Lucky Star isn’t great but the first half is pretty watchable. Also there will probably soon be some shows which nobody has currently on his radar as usual. Then there’s 30 years of anime history, I doubt you watched all of it already, probably not even all good stuff from the last two years. Looks like this is the annual no-more-good-anime-whining thread.
To be honest, you’re being so negative about each show and giving none of them a chance, I’d rather think you’re temporarily fed up with anime maybe from an overdose or something. Can happen, will happen, has happened to me too. That’ll go away on its own though. Just focus on other things and in a couple of weeks or months you might be able to enjoy anime more easily again.
Alex Papillon http://
August 1st, 2007 at 6:27 amChris: Well, Bee Train hasn’t exactly had a long history either. From what I know (I’m not stating it as a matter of fact), they first worked on hack as one of their major works. I’m well aware that hack is/was a pretty popular series, but it’s my personal opinion that I didn’t like them.
And Avenger is terrible in various ways. I couldn’t finish the first episode…it’s not the action or animation that bothered me. I can watch poorly animated things fair enough. I don’t mind Noir, in fact I like it quite a bit and I thought El Cazador was okay. Maybe some people not liking Bee Train doesn’t make it bad, but comparing them with some other studios does make them worse (if bad is too cut and dry). Production I.G., Bones and GONZO have had some really good series out granted they’ve had their share of iffy ones. But out of Bee Train’s best work, it would probably have to be Noir…plus the Noir/Madlax/El Cazador (same rehash trilogy) kind of makes it stale. I’m surprised CLAMP or whomever had Bee Train animate Tsubasa because it could have been a lot less repetitive but maybe CLAMP just wanted their own pokemon-esque neverending thing.
Amanda Liu http://
August 1st, 2007 at 6:47 amChris> Just because I hate most of the summer season shows it does not mean this is an “annual no-more-good-anime” whining post. On the contrary, I’m liking this year more than every other year combined in terms of anime. Even a rather dull season is able to provide one gem. So how the hell do I think there is no more good anime? On the contrary, I actually don’t know/like a lot of old anime so how can I even say that? The truth is I can’t and I’m not saying/implying it at all.
I have always been a rather picky person by nature but unlike many other people out there I only have one guideline for watching an anime. It has to entertain me. That is what anime is all about in the first place? I don’t go to the computer and expect to fall asleep while watching an anime which is what happened in many of the cases here.
Though I am wondering right now did you even read the article? Because if you read it, I was not “being so negative about EACH show and giving NONE OF THEM A CHANCE”. If I was so negative, then why the hell would I recommend Mushi-Uta to everyone and keep on referring to it as a gem and etc. Why the hell would I praise Claymore so heavily? Why would I thank BONES for answering my Darker than BLACK related prayers?
Oh and just to inform you on what you missed, I did give many shows a chance. I gave Devil May Cry 4 episodes, Nanatsurio Drops 2 episodes, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 3 episodes (and all these shows have 12/13 episodes). And I tried sincerely hard to like these series especially Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei with its overall praise from everyone. I really did. I try to focus on the positive aspects but I couldn’t stay awake and well it’s just not my taste. Everyone has different tastes. Just because I didn’t find it interesting it doesn’t mean that you won’t find it interesting.
I am not fed up with anime at the moment or I wouldn’t be watching anything. Last year, I kept up with one series from the fall and winter season COMBINED. Consider that and you can see what an improvement this is. I’m not on overdose, on the contrary I’m as busy as hell this summer with SAT classes, Japanese, Health, P.E, tae kwon do, orchestra and etc. Watching anime is STILL a great pastime for me where I can just enjoy myself and relax. So you know what, stop trying to give me advice when you don’t even have the fucking facts right and while you have every right to disagree with don’t start making up your own inaccurate assumptions.
Chris
August 1st, 2007 at 8:38 amI actually only really from the “Dumping ground” on. Sorry. Let me make another fucking inaccurate assumption. If you don’t like Zetsubo Sensei, you probably don’t like any other anime by SHAFT like Tsukuyomi, Pani Poni Dash or Negima!? I just saved you 31 hours.
Amanda Liu http://
August 1st, 2007 at 1:17 pmActually I liked Pani Poni Dash. So there you go.
Alex Papillon http://
August 1st, 2007 at 1:46 pmLook people don’t have to like things, okay? I don’t really see a problem. I dislike a lot of things but everyone has their freedom to dislike whatever (including me) and that’s all there is to it.
Chris
August 1st, 2007 at 11:10 pmThat’s why I wrote “probably”. Also I have the subtle feeling my comments are taken way to seriously, literally and personally.
People don’t have to like things and even have their own tastes? Woah, news flash!
Alex Papillon http://
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:10 amYeah, I think to some people, it is a news flash.
I think it’s your general tone of assuming you know things: “I doubt you watched all of it already, probably not even all good stuff from the last two years” that’s slightly irritating.
Amanda Liu http://
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:19 amThank you Alex. You’ve hit it right on the mark.
Garrett Goluszka http://gandtheonehalf.animeblogger.net
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 amhm..I forgot the comment on Code-E…er…2nd episode was about the first one all over again. I mean I would have loved to enjoy this series, but it has pacing problems. I think that has to be the thing I complain about most..but enh I may still go though episode 3 (oh I now recommend overdrive, though that could be considered last season maybe)
Wyn
August 5th, 2007 at 3:16 amYou missed Towards the Terra (Terra E). If you take the trouble to get through the first three episodes, the series just keeps getting better and better. Given the fact the story is an award winning manga from 1977, you can rest assured it’s good material.
Amanda Liu http://
August 6th, 2007 at 1:05 amShrado> I’m not ever going to touch CODE-E again. And Overdrive….I’m sorry but from what I’ve seen, NO. It’s just not my thing.
Wyn> I’m plannning to get a batch torrent once Terra E is complete and marathon it.
zenical http://zenime.animeblogger.net/
August 12th, 2007 at 9:39 pmwell its good to see you’re following/ or you tried some anime, which i didn’t bother to try at all. Lol. Yes Claymore is nice and addictive!! ^^