For me, this summer was defiantly a summer of amine. I have to do something with all these wonderful video games not coming out right? Social life you say? What's that? So Here's a brief rundown of what I watched! Mostly my opinoins so if you want a better synopsis, you can go to wikipeda.
Black Lagoon
A Japanese businessman is taken hostage by some modern day pirates, a transport company named Black Lagoon. He decides to join them, adventure ensues.
I don't really know how to explain my feelings on this one. I liked it sure, but its hard for me to say why. The action as alright and I'm not a fan of series that have one-shot stories for each episode. I guess its the characters that really make it shine. The main crew is alright, but the enemies is where is stands out. From crazy maids and nuns, to vampire children and the Russian ex-military mod, a crazy cast of antagonists keeps your interest the whole way through. A good watch If you want to watch something with a little action but doesn't cram it down your throat like lots of anime tend to do.
Hellsing
A secret organization, The Hellsing Orginization, hunts down vampire, with the help of a very ancient and powerful one named Alucard (original, right...). However the story revolves more around a girl who he turn and join the orginization.
I enjoyed this one a lot. The action is solid and provides good charecters to set up fights with. And vampires! Remember when vampires use to be cool? This will remind you why. I like how they mention they expected powers of vampires only briefly, while Alucard dips into a pool of powers you wouldn't attribute to vampires at first, but fit in perfectly. This makes the fact that his aprintace vampire, Victoria, barley uses any vampire powers at all, very disapointing. It fits in with her reluctance to enbrace being undead, but its a little too late to go back, now isn't it! Definantly give it a watch if you haven't seen it. (I haven't seen Helling Ultimate yet, I'm waiting for the series to finish.)
Gungrave
A ex-mafia hitman, Grave, is trying to enact revenge on the mob for killing him and for hostilly taking over the town with the use of mutated human mosters.
This one is hard to recommend. It's good, but it takes so long to get there. The first episode takes place in the present but then they spend seventeen episode in back story getting there to continue on. Sure the later half of the back story is interesting but it takes so long to build up! The worst part about this all is that Grave never talks. Even when he is alive, perfectly healthy and at the top of his game, he barley says anything. I've written more in this paragraph than he says the entire show. This does not make it interesting. If you can last long enough to make it to where the action and story picks up you will find a almost too similar mob story coated with some solid shooting. There is better anime out there, so only give this one a watch if you got nothing better to do,
Baccano
The story of a whole cast of charecters, revolving around one train ride gone horrible wrong.
This one is great. There is something like fifteen charecters and all of then are interesting and unique. The do a good job of managing all the charecters so they get mostly equal face time, and you never mind spending time with one group or another. The story is a little wacky and in the end it almost feels like it didn't go anywhere. But at the same time, they jump back in forth between the past, present (being the train ride), and future, you get lost at times. This show isn't about the story, but the people in it and they rock. Isaac and Miria are two of the best, being ecentric robbers, who never rob anything all that valuble. They really bring home the show and make this one have a place as one of my favorite. A good show if your looking for a great cast of interesting and unique charecters.
Welcome to the N.H.K.
Sato is a hikikomori (shut-in) with no education or job. One day a girl, Misaki, desides that she is going to cure him of his ways and put him back into society.
This one put me off at first. It come at you in a very... japanese way, its hard to explain. I feel like it will turn off a lot of people because of how it presents it self. You can easily tell it was not made with out society and culture in mind. Once you get past that, you get into a absolute masterpiece and find that the things they are trying to convey still apply to us across the sea. The charecters come off as very real, almost in a harsh and depressing way. It's almost hard to think that there really are people like this out there, not only in Japan, but the whole world. Its all a tale about overcoming the hradships of life, with each charecter in the shows small cast personifing life harships and failures in diffrent ways. I have to say this shows ending is one of the best I've seen in a while. I usaully don't like drama or romance anime but I really enjoyed this. If you can get past It's japanese quirks you will find a great story with well relaized charecters and find it inspriring and dpressing at the same time.
If you read all of this, God bless you. I know I'm not good at writing nor articualting my thoughts. I still thought I has to write all this down to justify the time and this summer I wasted watching all this.
Log in to comment