We've finished quite a few series that had been long running at the Akron Anime Meetup
and have started a few replacements. All in all it was a fun time as
all the regulars were there. In addition we ordered Chicken and snacked
on tasty treats such as spice cake, pretzels, Banana nut muffins and
Green rice things.
Fruits basket
Yay we're finally done with the Big eyed anime of doom. This series
is Shojo so not too much should be expected from it, however it did
have it moments of comedy. The plot involved an orphan girl falling
upon disreputable companies who suffer from a terrible curse. It seems
these companions, known as the Soma family, are forced to take the form
of an animal from the Chinese Zodiac when they are hugged by a member
of the opposite sex. She soon develops a harem of these strange animal
men in particular a rat and cat. Does this harem fall under the realm
of zooaphilia, particularly since the nature of the curse almost
demands bestiality in order for the Somas to procreate.... :( (This is
normally why I fear Shojo due to it's disturbing plots.) Eventually our
Heroine Toru reforms the animals and they seem to live happily ever and
forge down into new depths. This anime is filled with cross dressing
and people of indeterminate gender. Flee Flee!
Full Metal Panic
One of the best Mecha series I've scene and a decent antidote to the
Fruity baskets. It has interesting alternate world. I gather the Full
Metal Panic world involves a surviving but Weak Soviet Union and a
anarchic and strife ridden china. It seems that new revolutionary
technologies such as mechas (or Arm Slaves in the anime) and super
submarines are being developed by special people known the "whispered".
In to this anarchy a small mercenary band know as Mithral attempts to
spread justice and make the world a better place. One way is by
protected the "wispered" and preventing them from being exploited by
evil folk. A young soldier named Sousuke is sent on a mission to
protect one, Kaname Chidori and so follows lots of entertainment.
The one problem with this series is that Kaname is really cruel to
our hero Souseke and will not miss a moment to beat on the poor guy.
Otherwise there are nice action sequences with mechas and a hijacked
jumbo jet. I also felt the final battle with the main villain to be
very odd since there was a lack of Lamba Drivers and the nude Kaname
wandering around was beyond explanation. (or at least reasonable
explanation, I realize that it could be posited that her nude form
symbolized the submarine... )
Twelve Kingdoms
We watched the first three or so episodes of twelve kingdoms and it
certainly has caught my interest. The animation is pretty cool though
it looks a little odd, perhaps because I'm more used to the newer
animation styles, but it's still quite cool. Our red haired Heroine is
extremely reluctant and whiny which is annoying but it does serve as a
counter point to her crazy companion who just want kill everything. I
predict that the crazy one becomes some kind of villain just because
she seems to have some real issues. I look forward to seeing more as
I've heard this series is quite good.
Beck
Finally we've started on the this anime about a group of students
attempting to form the ultimate band. It's quite entertaining and even
has decent music as opposed to the normal scary J-Pop found in some
anime. Hopefully I'll find the will to wright a more complete review of
this series at a later time after I've seen more of it.