Trigun

Quick & Dirty
Language: Japanese
Initial Interest: Medium
Favorite Character: Vash
Opinion: Good
Likely to Finish: Already have


Synopsis
 Vash the Stampede is a gunman on the run with a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head which has made it difficult for him to go anywhere without being chased and shot at. Every town he ever visits ends up being destroyed because of his pursuers, but miraculously no one ever gets killed. Meryl and Milly are two insurance agents that have been sent to find Vash the Stampede and keep him under surveillance so no more damage is caused. Meryl, who leads the pair, refuses to believe that the man they have met can possibly be the legendary gunman. This spikey haired, gangly, young man is extremely friendly, a pacifist, hates blood and suicide, absolutely loves donuts, and is a dork and a crybaby (far from a notorious outlaw). But there is more to Vash and his past than meets the eye. (Source: AnimeNewsNetwork)


Pre-Viewing Thoughts
I watched Trigun on its original run on Cartoon Network. I like it well enough then so I don't mind watching it again at all. It's been years so I probably won't even remember most of it. The only thing that makes me not so keen on watching it is that I remember it being one of those series that is kind of slow to start. The first...well half of the series is mostly just silly episodes that would only mildly affect the good story bit that falls into place later. I know they had to do the throw away episodes first so that we got an idea of who Vash is and started to like him and stuff, but it doesn't make for a great 5 episode review. Oh well, here goes.


Favorite Character
I picked Vash because it's pretty hard to like this series and not like Vash. In the first 5 episodes there are basically 3 characters to choose from, Vash, Meryl, and Milly. Later on we'll pick up Wolfwood and I remember liking Wolfwood well enough. But for the first 5 it's got to be Vash. He's a complete idiot 90% of the time he's onscreen and yet he still manages to be cool.


Overall Opinion
So I said that I liked the series but that I wasn't completely looking forward to watching the first 5 because Trigun is a series that takes its time getting to the real story. This is true. But I think I was remembering the beginning from the perspective of someone who had recently seen it. The first time I ever watched Trigun I had to stay up till around 1 or 2 in the morning and I'm sure that made me tired, and the second time I watched it I had just recently seen it... Now, watching it again at a reasonable hour having not seen it for nearly 8 years, I realize it doesn't matter how long it takes to begin.
Trigun is fun. As I said, Vash is a complete idiot...but at the same time he's not. In every episode it looks as if he's just lucking into a nice resolution to the episode's dilemma but in fact he is solving it with a razor intellect and insane timing - while pretending to be a complete idiot lucking into a nice resolution. It's just fun to watch. I was worried about trudging through these episodes because they lack a whole lot of plot and instead I found myself at the fifth episode in no time and wanting to watch more.
This series does action characters very well. I remember learning enought about Vash and Wolfwood later on to feel like they had rich character backgrounds and strong motivations. At the same time the two non-action characters Meryl and Milly, I don't recal ever getting any background at all. The animation also stands up to time pretty well. I won't say it looks new but it doesn't look old either. There are plenty of series that are as old as Trigun that look older and that makes some fans steer away from them, so being able to avoid looking old can be really important for an anime.
There isn't a lot Trigun lacks. If you don't like it, it's a matter of taste more than anything. Maybe westernish shooter anime with a flare for the ridiculous just doesn't appeal to you, so you don't like Trigun but there isn't really much you could point to and say I'd like it if they'd done that better. However I remember that once they get into the plot they don't quite play it out all the way and Kaze (my husband) says he remembers the ending being rushed and leaving you hanging. These are things you buy the manga to rectify as I understand it, though I've never read it myself.
One thing that you might look out for in the future is a Trigun reboot. Nowadays it has become somewhat popular to go back and fix it. They redid Hellsing (Ultimate), they redid Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood), they're sort of redoing Dragonball Z (Kai), and I saw recently that they may even be redoing Berserk. So any title that isn't up to manga standards is a reasonable candidate for reboot and considering how well liked Trigun was/is, it wouldn't surprise me to see a Trigun reboot in the near future.

I give Trigun my full recomendation. It's a good show and I don't think I've ever met anyone who said they saw it and didn't like it.


Next Official Review: Blassrieter
Open to suggestion.


As an additional note, I found out last week that I cannot directly reply to any comments. I'm not sure what to do about this since it kinda defeats part of the purpose of a blog. I can comment after people but as far as I can tell it won't tell you that I commented so you'd have to look through backposts to see it. I could just not respond to anything...but I really would like to discuss things whenever possible so that really isn't an option. The only other thing I can think of is moving the blog to WordPress or Livejournal or some other blog site that I know will allow me to reply directly. Any thoughts?

D-Gray Man

Quick & Dirty
Language: Japanese
Initial Interest: High
Favorite Character: Allen?
Opinion: Good
Likely to Finish: Yes


Synopsis
Allen Walker, a young man with a cursed eye, lives to destroy a weapon known as Akuma. These weapons created by the Milleneum Earl are sent out by his command to purge the world from humans. Allen Walker uses an anti-akuma weapon, Innocence, to counter the Earl's attempts at destroying humanity. He travels to the Black Order by his mentor's directions. There he meets with others who also fight against the Milleneum Earl's plans. But more questions start to appear as Allen and his friends move further along to reach their goal. And these questions that seem to connect to Allen's past. (Source: Anime News Network)


Pre-Viewing Thoughts
I started reading the D-Gray Man manga at some point because I seemed to be hearing the name thrown around a lot for a while and one of my friends really seemed to like it so I was curious. I was mildly interested but didn’t get terribly far and now have no idea where I was. All the same I think I’d rather the anime. In general I prefer anime to manga because it has color and moves. There are exceptions of course – I’d rather read Fruits Basket than watch it (because it’s finished mostly) and DNAngel is mostly better in manga form… But overall the color and movement that manga lacks adds something very important. For some series this is doubly so. Any series with lots of action really needs to be animated because it is easier to grasp the flow of the action. This is where I think D-Gray Man falls. I don’t remember a whole lot about the series from the little bit of manga I read. I remember he fought demons (it says “Akuma” in the description up there, which is a Japanese word for demon). I do remember at least one sequence where someone was wounded and possibly killed by a demon, that I didn’t even realize was targeting them. Another thing the anime can add to this particular series is that it’ll pin down Allen’s age a little more solidly. I don’t remember if they said how old he was in the manga, but I remember he struck me as seeming really young to be a powerful demon-slayer journeying on his own, and that bothered me.
I picked D-Gray Man now because while I had previously forgotten about it, some cosplayers I ran into recently reminded me that it existed. I liked their costumes and they seemed like fun people so I became curious about this series they were so enamored with. My friend says it’s good but it doesn’t really pick up till around episode 13 so that’ll be incentive to finish it if I like it at all.
Overall, I’m extremely curious about the series.


Favorite Character
I put Allen down as my favorite character above…but that’s really a default answer. I don’t feel like I’ve had enough time, in 5 episodes of this series, to get to know anybody enough to really like any of them. For the most part the only characters we get any kind of feel for in the first 5 are Allen and Kanda, and Kanda was a complete jerk for most of his screen time. Thus Allen wins by default. I imagine I could grow to really like Allen, or perhaps another character, with more episodes and exposure.


Overall Opinion
Based on the first 5 episodes this series strikes me as somewhat amazing. I can see why it became popular for a time. I really want to watch the rest of this series, even if it is over 100 episodes long. And I get why it’s so long too, as I said, I didn’t get much feel for any of the characters in the first 5 episodes. That’s sort of rare really, usually in 5 episodes you have a pretty good grasp of who some of the characters are. Maybe it’s just me, who knows. I like the plot, it seems to strive for a lot of emotion and I think it will be able to achieve it. There are many things I want to learn in the future, like what happened to curse Allen and why Kanda is such a jerk, because I can tell there’s a reason beyond ‘he just is’.
I said above that I thought the anime would help D-Gray Man a lot for me and I was right. Allen still seems young, but not as young as I remember him seeming in the manga. The action was easy to follow. And the thing I think really makes the anime necessary here is the mood. Almost the entirety of these 5 episodes took place at night, which makes sense in a story about soul enslaving demon monsters bent on destroying the world. But in a manga everything is white and that just doesn’t set the same mood.
I really recommend giving this one a try if you haven’t already. It has an interesting premise and characters that promise something in the future.


Next Official Review: Up for suggestion. Please someone suggest something.
Gunslinger Girl if not otherwise suggested.

Heat Guy J

Sorry this one's so late. I had to go out of town early last Friday morning for a wedding. I thought I'd have a laptop with me to get this done on time but it didn't work out that way. Here's Heat Guy J posted late. I plan to do another for this Friday and hopefully two again next week to make up for the screw up.

Quick & Dirty

Language: Japanese

Initial Interest: Low

Favorite Character: Daisuke…Boma

Opinion: Good

Likely to Finish: Yes

Synopsis

Android J was secretly built by the government to be the partner of special agent Daisuke Aurora and to combat crime in the oceanic city-nation of Judoh. While J initially appears to be human, the illusion quickly disappears in clouds of scorching steam when he fights… The most dangerous criminals will soon find themselves on the run from the underground legend known as the Heat Guy. (Source – Pioneer Animaton – DVD)

Pre-Viewing Thoughts

A friend recommended this series as she was heading off to Japan and pulled it right off the shelf for me to watch. It’s been sitting there for almost a year. I finally got around to reading the back of the box to see what exactly this series was about somewhere around a week ago.

I’m not really interested. The plot doesn’t sound wildly interesting to me.  All the same, I’ve said those words before and fallen completely in love with a series. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I’m a character person. That means that for me good characters can carry a mediocre plot and bad characters can ruin a great plot. So if this series has good characters, which it has a reasonable chance at, then I may love it. Here goes nothing.

Favorite Character

Favorite character goes to Daisuke. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I really liked his character for some reason. Honestly I didn’t think I would but I do. He’s kind of fun to watch I guess.

I also liked Boma (Werewolf Boma or the “villain” from episode 4). He was just cool and he had an interesting backstory that drove his actions. I’d like to see him return in future episodes.

Overall Opinion

This is one of those series that comes at you like a sucker punch. You just don’t see it coming. I thought the description made it sound boring and I wasn’t crazy about the artwork so I wasn’t really looking forward to it; then all of a sudden I was watching this series and it was really good. As I said in my pre-viewing thoughts, I’m a character person and good characters can make the anime for me. That’s what we have here, good characters. Daisuke is gives off this air of not caring about anything really but little things he does show he really does care deeply for those around him. J at first just seems like a stiff robot, nothing new or special, but his unwavering dedication to Daisuke made me like him. Boma, a character who was in one of the first five episodes, as a villain, made me want to see more of him. And then we have our real villain, Clair/Vampire; this guy is a complete lunatic and he shows it in every action but he’s still interesting. Little snippets here and there hint that Clair has some serious daddy issues and you wonder what exactly they are. But even without caring about Clair’s background, he’s still going to be a fun bad guy to pit J and Daisuke up against. Really the characters here are amazing and they make what would otherwise be a mediocre plot seem like something worth watching.

I recommend giving this one a try. If you don’t like it then you don’t, but don’t count it out before you’ve watched a few episodes.

Next Official Review: Open to suggestions.
D-Gray Man if not otherwise suggested.

Gundam Seed

Quick & Dirty
Language: Japanese
Initial Interest: High
Favorite Character: Kira & Athrun
Opinion: Excellent series
Likely to Finish: Already have


Synopsis
Year 70 of the Cosmic Era. The Coordinators, a group of genetically-enhanced humans, have moved into colonies orbiting the Earth. But that hasn’t quieted the tensions between them and regular humans; the conflict soon escalates into a full-scale war.
On the neutral colony of Heliopolis, Kira Yamato, and his friends are going to school and just being kids. But when the ZAFT commando forces attack, Kira’s life changes forever. Left with no choice he and Federation officer Murrue Ramius are thrown into battle in a prototype mobile weapon, which Kira christens “GUNDAM”. Now, Kira must defend himself, and his friends, from his own people. For, unknown to anyone else Kira is a Coordinator. And the enemy he faces on the battlefield is his childhood best friend, Athrun! (Source: Bandai Entertainemnt – DVD box set)


Pre-Viewing Thoughts
This is actually an anime that I have already seen. It is in fact my husband’s favorite series. This being my first review it makes it difficult to accurately describe my expectations going in. I can’t really even remember what I thought about watching Gundam Seed before I met my husband. I do know I wanted to watch it but didn’t know when it started on Cartoon Network. I also know that I had at that point seen 5 different Gundam Series and loved 3 of them. So I probably had pretty high hopes for this series. By the time I actually watched it I had met my husband and knew how much he loved it and was therefore extremely excited.
As for my current thoughts on re-watching the first 5 episodes, I’m pretty cool with that. I liked the series, I don’t mind seeing it again. It might be interesting to watch it while thinking about what I think about it…we’ll see.


Favorite Character
The thing about picking a favorite character based on the first 5 episodes is that it’s entirely likely all of the characters will not have been introduced. Gundam Seed, however, is a series that introduces every important member of the cast in the first few episodes, with one exception. Unfortunately the exception here is my overall favorite – Lacus Clyne. As far as the first 5 episodes go I’ve decided I like Kira & Athrun best.
A lot of people think Kira is too whiny in this series but I tend to disagree. Sure Kira complains a lot at the beginning and he picks it up again later on when he’s being purposefully manipulated, but I think it’s safe to say most of us would whine at least as much in his situation. He doesn’t want to fight and he finds himself in a position where everyone keeps telling him fight or you and your friends will die. It sucks, no doubt about it. But he still fights. I can respect that.
Athrun is the other side of the coin and I think in the first 5 episodes I like him just as much. Athrun is a soldier. He believes in what he’s fighting for and you can’t blame him for wanting to fight because his mother was killed in the brutal massacre that triggered this war. Despite that, in both of the major battles Athrun takes part in he doesn’t fight. Why? Because his best friend is the one he’s supposed to kill and he just can’t do that. He tries his best to bring Kira over to Zaft so he doesn’t have to worry about this powerful personal conflict and in the process of trying not to kill his friend he kind of forgets what he’s supposed to be doing.
I think both are believable characters and I like the way their thoughts and interactions are presented in these episodes (and in the series as a whole).


Overall Opinion
Gundam Seed is a Gundam series in the truest sense. With a real Gundam series you can expect 3 things: mobile suits (some of which will be called gundams), war, and an extremely vague line between bad and good. And that last bit is what I really love about Gundam. Most series have a bad guy, a person or group that is always antagonistic and/or evil. Gundam has that too, in Seed it’s Le Cruise, but I think in another series Zaft would be the “bad guy” as it were. They set up the beginning very skillfully and I never quite appreciated it until I watched it with this purpose. The first shot you see is of Zaft soldiers beginning a mission. I think the mission is the one to steal the gundams, but it gets a little hard to tell (for me at least). But you don’t actually see the soldiers, you hear them. What you see is pictures in their cockpits – one soldier has a photo of a woman that’s probably his girlfriend, wife, or sister, another a woman with a baby. They shout the line “For the sake of Zaft” and then before we get to see their faces we learn that the Earth Alliance nuked a colony that sparked this war. From that one would suspect that Zaft soldiers are the heroes in this series, but technically the heroes are the crew of the Archangel (an Earth Alliance ship) and specifically Kira.
But that’s a very specific statement about the beginning and this is supposed to be my overall opinion so let’s get to it. I love this series. If I hadn’t already seen it at least twice from beginning to end I would definitely want to finish it. It presents a conflict that most of us can understand – war, them vs. us. The unique thing is that the main two characters from the very beginning are best friends on opposite sides and they know it. That’s important I think. When I watched the first episode of another series the best friends were pitted against each other but they didn’t know it; it creates tension for the audience but not for the characters and I don’t really want to see the moment when one of them unknowingly kills the other and then cheers or finds out who it was and is destroyed. That to me isn’t a good conflict, and it isn’t emotionally provocative. But in Seed they know from the beginning that they are facing their best friend. Suddenly in this game of them vs. us one of them becomes one of us, only we’ve still got to kill him. It makes me anxious to see the outcome, especially since I can see that neither of them can give up the thing they are fighting for. Athrun isn’t fighting to kill all naturals, he’s fighting to protect the colonies (Plants). And Kira doesn’t want to fight at all but the lives of his friends are on the line and he can’t back down. I want to know what’s going to happen between them because eventually they’ll have to really fight, though they haven’t really yet, and theoretically that means one of them will kill the other. The added issue here though is that from the first 5 episodes it seems obvious that neither one of them can kill the other because they care too much.
Overall this series has good, complex characters who grow throughout and a deep involved plot. It has a lot of technical aspects, being a war and all, but they aren’t so prevalent that they make the series unapproachable – I know, I’m a dunce when it comes to military terms. The animation is probably the part most lacking in this series; it isn’t bad but it’s the kind of style where everyone has exactly the same face. If you’ve watched Fafner, which has the same art style, you’re likely to feel as if you’ve seen everyone before. I recommend this one to anyone who isn’t vehemently opposed to all things gundam.


This part is not part of the review.
This being my first review I’m particularly interested in feedback. Was this interesting or helpful, is there anything specific you would like me to continue to do or do differently for future reviews? Also if you have any questions about Gundam Seed that you’d like me to answer, I’ll be happy to answer. And of course, any suggestions for future series to review are welcome.


Next official review: Ragnarok the Animation