{"id":1032,"date":"2009-04-07T12:16:44","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T19:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikoto.wordpress.com\/?p=1032"},"modified":"2009-04-07T12:16:44","modified_gmt":"2009-04-07T19:16:44","slug":"spring-2009-anime-first-impressions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/2009\/04\/spring-2009-anime-first-impressions-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring 2009 Anime First Impressions: Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Part Two.5 (Part Two somehow wormed its way out of this post into a separate post: Saki 01<\/a>) of my Spring 2009 First Impressions: Higepiyo<\/em>, Asura Cryin’<\/em>, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood<\/em>,\u00a0Shin Mazinger Sh\u014dgeki! Z-Hen<\/em>, Basquash<\/em>, Dragon Ball Kai<\/em>, and Phantom<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Higepiyo<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Who knew a single 5-minute-long episode with such unique <\/em>art could be so funny?<\/p>\n

Higepiyo, the chick that never changes expression while doing human things, much to the amazement of the humans around him… it sounds like one huge boring anime with no point whatsoever.<\/p>\n

And that may be the case. \u00a0Higepiyo looks like one great idea for a short series, but to have it maintain the same level of “lol here is a chick with a beard reading the newspaper” humor for 43 episodes will be tough, if not impossible.<\/p>\n

Win<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asura Cryin’<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Basically, shit happens, more shit happens, and suddenly, we find ourselves watching the scene above: a fire magician guy, a “good” clad-in-white guy with guns, and a “bad” clad-in-black woman somehow holding up a gun without touching it (psychic powarrrz) stuck in a deadly “don’t move, or we all kill each other” triangle.<\/p>\n

I originally wanted to watch this (it came in third on my Spring 2009 anticipation scale behind Shangri-la<\/em> and K-ON!<\/em>) because of the cute ghost girl, and the summaries I read hinted at a sweet romance (and with a ghost girl, that’s quite the twist there!). \u00a0What I got instead is the biggest genre and theme masher I’ve seen to date (besides parodies like Hayate<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Asura Cryin’<\/em> = priestesses + magicians + mecha + ghost girl + school life + “mafia” + gang wars + action + comedy + romance (?) + a whole lot more.<\/p>\n

Yet does this mean that it’s a bad anime?
\nHell no, it just means that it’s got a lot to work with! \u00a0(aka “I like this anime”)<\/p>\n

Win<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Well, I must confess that I’m an FMA noob. \u00a0 In fact, I’ve yet to see FMA, Death Note, and Bleach, the three most popular anime on MAL. \u00a0I guess that makes me out of the loop, no?<\/p>\n

Actually, I have read some random FMA manga (there’s sometimes nothing to do at a library, and the libraries I’ve went to have shitloads of FMA manga for some reason), and I know about the storyline and such. \u00a0However, seeing as I’ve not watched any of the original FMA, I’m not in any position to make comparisons between FMA and FMA2 (and FMA manga version).<\/p>\n

Basically, this episode was okay. \u00a0Average.<\/p>\n

The “short” thing – it’s annoying as hell. \u00a0I mean, even if Al needs to be introduced as the younger brother, I doubt that he needs to be introduced in this same fashion thrice. \u00a0If this becomes a recurring gag (which, by the looks of it, it will), it’s going to be a long road ahead.<\/p>\n

Edward’s character was portrayed very well in his “I’m going to own the Ice Alchemist” scene at the beginning, as well as throughout the entire episode. \u00a0I got the impression that he’s a loving older brother who feels remorse over what he did (and that event wasn’t really explained that much) and who is trying at all costs to get his younger brother’s body back, even if it means rushing headfirst towards the enemy (aka becoming headstrong).<\/p>\n

Besides him, I didn’t really get much character out of the cast. \u00a0Major Ahogestrong seems like your run-of-the-mill stripper (notrly), and Al just plays the younger brother role.<\/p>\n

Win<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shin Mazinger Sh\u014dgeki! Z-Hen<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WHAT THE HELL?<\/h2>\n

This feels like watching TTGL’s 26th episode. \u00a0It doesn’t make any sense at all, and I met 100+ characters in the span of 20 minutes. \u00a0My god, I hate this anime.<\/p>\n

What do they expect?
\n“It’s quite obvious that any hardcore fan would remember everything that happened, even after 20 years!”
\nNO. \u00a0I’m no hardcore fan of this series, but I can attest to that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are way too many things wrong with this scene.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You are not an everyday, normal boy!<\/li>\n
  2. Shounen right from the start. \u00a0Only boys should be watching this show!<\/li>\n
  3. Don’t look over to your left, I’m right in front of you!<\/li>\n
  4. “Get ready to enter the world of Pokemon!”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Epic fail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Basquash<\/h1>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    My god, that’s some awesome art.<\/p>\n

    Basketball Sasquatch = Basquash? \u00a0More like Basquatch!
    \n(no, but really, is that where the title comes from?)<\/p>\n

    So basically, Bigfoot basketball in a world where people try to go to the moon.
    \n?!?!?!?1\/1 much?<\/p>\n

    Still, this is one awesome show. \u00a0The humor strikes home, the art is excellent, and the story is incredibly interesting (even if it feels a little stereotypical).<\/p>\n

    Epic win<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Dragon Ball Kai<\/h1>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    No, it’s not very awesome at all.<\/p>\n

    DBK 01 rushed through things. \u00a0Heavily.
    \nIt’s like watching Dragon Ball… except all squeezed into five minutes.
    \nWhich, I guess, is okay for DBZ vets, but for newcomers, it’s a no-no.<\/p>\n

    The art hasn’t changed much, which is nice, actually (except for Bulma’s not-very-womanly figure<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    However, I watched DBZ with english dubs (as I’m sure many have), so Goku’s female voice is not appealing at all. \u00a0With his manly voice, Piccolo is a thousand times more gar than Goku will ever be.<\/p>\n

    On a whole, a good blast from the past… but not my type.<\/p>\n

    Fail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~<\/h1>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    This felt like some crappy FPS to me. \u00a0I honestly don’t like this kind of “dark” anime, the noiresque kind of anime.<\/p>\n

    Lol@useless scene shown above.<\/p>\n

    I think I’ll keep watching Grayer than GRAY<\/em> if not only for the gun wielding maid.<\/p>\n

    I’ve got nothing else to say, and this is the end of the post, so by-<\/p>\n

    Normal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    As in, normal —>\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Part Two.5 (Part Two somehow wormed its way out of this post into a separate post: Saki 01) of my Spring 2009 First Impressions: Higepiyo, Asura Cryin’, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood,\u00a0Shin Mazinger Sh\u014dgeki! Z-Hen, Basquash, Dragon Ball Kai, and Phantom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2zM4X-gE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}