I think that’s what I gave it as well. The bad girl reminded me of B-Ko more than Lum, probably because she was always angry.Xard wrote: I actually just watched this one too. I think I gave it 5/10, it was mindnumbingly average but not bad per se. Animation was occasionally pretty damn good too, especially in the wrestling scenes towards end (dat camera movement). Oh, and the baddie was pretty smexy, propably since she looked like a cheap Lum knockoff.
having the normal girl “win” would be refreshing, even if she is a childhood friend. But she’s already been friendzoned anyway. Oh well. Considering that this show is just as packed with character cliches as everything else out there, "normal" is almost refreshing enough to cancel out the fact that she's still the childhood friend. It's not so bad because she still isn't the tsundere childhood friend.Xard wrote: Normal girl is too normal and foureyed to compete. In other words she's rather boring character to me. Charming but nothing special. She'd suit Kyousuke fine though - but she's childhood friends which means her chances of winning are next to nil. Japan has grudge towards childhood friends
seeing as how the novels are still unfinished, I’m not sure the show will offer that kind of ending. And as much as it does have all the clichés of the run-of-the-mill harem, it’s strangely more than that. Kyousuke’s the protagonist, but much like MoHS, he’s not usually the primary focus of the narrative. All the action originates with or is tangentially caused by Kirino. Aside from Normalgirl, the harem aspects of the show all rely on Kirino about as much as they’re connected to Kyousuke.Xard wrote: Although I really don't care who ends up "winning" in the end, as long as it isn't Kirino.
Gunsmith Cats is supposed to be great, but I haven’t seen it yet. I saw pieces of it ages ago on VHS, but not the whole thing. Maybe that was just a preview. I can’t remember now.Xard wrote:*OVAs*
does he have any plans of directing ANYTHING in the future? I wish he’d come back with something kickass again.Xard wrote: Talk about wasted potential. Why didn't Watanabe direct this himself?
wait what generally realistic capabilities? MtH started out basking in unrealistic action right from the prison break and nonsensical scooter shenanigans in the first episodes.Xard wrote: It all gets worse towards end with Michiko performing some absolutely ridiculous stunts that conflict against her generally "realistic" capabilities.
That strange complaint about action aside, I don’t have much to disagree with. I think its flaws were largely down played when I watched it because I spaced it out over so long a time period. I thought it worked really well as an episodic anime, and if it had stayed with that after the first ‘arc’ then things would probably have turned out much better. The writing got blurry and uneven as the whole crime gang thing started to become more pronounced, but it only rarely did it lapse into “bad” territory (I distinctly remember Michiko taking on the role of a matador at one point that struck me as dumb, but there weren’t many parts that were worse than that). Characters were its strongest feature, though. Characters and animation. And color pallet. And music. In fact, everything was good except some of the writing & directing.
ironically the main thing you pinged on in your minireview could easily be leveled at Harlock or GE999, since GE999 is notoriously long and episodic while Harlock is itself extremely episodic and slowly paced and for good reason. Looking back on it, I do think Harlock did a better job with its pacing—particularly after the first ten or fifteen episodes—but both of them were still rooted in that “deliver 25 min of quality entertainment per week” episodic mentality. Progressing the overall plot is important, but so is the struggle of the week, so is the excuse to show the Yamato in action, etc. It was only once the series really got underway that things like dogfights and lasers everywhere and death to the gamilons could take a break for an episode or two so characters could be better explored. Same thing happens in Harlock as well, though from what I remember Harlock’s tangential episodes were still a little more plot-related than a few of SBY’s.Xard wrote: [Yamato] wasn't as good as what I've seen of Harlock or GE999 as far as Matsumoto's stuff is considered but great nonetheless.
And yeah the Robot was retarded, but… lol70s
Random sidenote: this scene reminded me of EoE (that was in one of the later episodes, but I can’t remember which; it was the one where Kodai and Sanada (the science officer) go to blow the shit out of some asteroid base). Did you get the same flashbacks?
well I know what I’ll be starting at some point…Xard wrote: Future Boy Conan