After yet another long absence from posting, I’m back, hopefully for a little longer this time. In the two months I’ve been gone, I’ve watched a lot of anime, so I thought I would start with that. So without further… rambling, here we go (don’t forget the spoilers).

Ar Tonelico: It’s a Fantasy/Steampunk anime that is basically a promo for the game of the same name. The main character lives in the highest part of a mysterious tower, and due to his recklessness, falls down to the lower levels where he meets the female part of the main cast. It’s a great concept, and the magic and signing mixed is great and somewhat old-school. The main problem is in the length: it’s only 24 minutes. So basically we have a world and relationships that should be cultured over multiple episode that are slammed together in the short amount of time. My ruling? If you’re not going to or haven’t seen the game, don’t watch the anime, it’s missing a real story, character development, and much more - when seen on its own.

Mospeada: Mospeada is a somewhat odd anime. Not the characters, not the mecha, but the plot line, but the actual episodes themselves. Aside from the last two, the episodes are small, self contained stories. So, besides the characters and some overlying plot elements, each episode starts and ends its own story. It’s a great idea, but don’t get me wrong, there is a plot, it’s just rather simple: the main characters join up and have to make it to the “Reflex Point” where they will fight the final battle. Mospeada has some great battle scenes, awesome character design and development, but a pretty bad ending. I don’t really like the whole “the bad guys are really good, it just depends on how you treat them/look at them.” But, if you like Macross, you’ll love Mospeada, just don’t go looking for a great bloody ending.

Macross 7: And it’s multiple spinoffs. I might have been negative about the first two, but be prepared for a slew of negativeness about 7. In a nutshell: it sucks. Now, for the long explanation we have a problem. The character design is great (Gamlin is one of my favorite charaters in all anime, plus he’s Takehito Koyasu), the plot is actually really good, and the mechas (the few that there are) are very well designed. What was the problem, then? The show could have easily been a short OVA or even a movie, but yet it was stretched over 50 episodes. 50 painful episodes. Let’s take the final story arc in account. They finally get to the enemy home planet, then they go back home for a few episodes, and they decide to go for one last run at the home planet: totally unnecessary, and slightly ridiculous. Another example. How many episodes did we have to hear Basara signing to Sivil in the freaking forest. Wake her freaking up and get it over with! I know that someone with a little skill in video editing could cut the 50 eps down to 2 hours, and we wouldn’t miss a beat. The saving grace? Fire Bomber is really awesome. My Soul For You? Oh yeah. Also, the movie sucked, the OVA was crap (let’s sing to whales…), but the special Encore was pretty good. So, yeah avoid this crap.

Uchuu no Senshi (Starship Troopers): Simply amazing anime. I just read the book, and it’s nothing like the Roughnecks or the movie, or even the anime… But, who would watch a show that played like the book? To be honest, I really loved the book, it’s classic, just a little heavy. I’m tired, so sufice to say, the show is awesome, and really deserves a watch-a-year. The best non-Mecha I’ve seen so far.

Patlabor: Now this is what I’m talking about. If you don’t mind silly animes, then you’ll love Patlabor. It’s short enough to get into if you don’t want to watch the show, but long enough to get it’s point across. The show is an interesting twist on the mainstream anime in the genre, as we’re dealing with the Police now, not the young pilot that accidentally gets control of the robot. I watched the OVA, but I plan to soon watch the TV show, I just hope they focus a little more on the training aspect of the characters. My only beef: The should have switched 5&6 with 7, as the show gets a sort of Conpiracy/all-out-war feeling in 5&6, and it’s completely lost in 7. But, if you agree with my, you can totally do it, you won’t lose anything, or notice anything out of place.

Tomorrow we’ll have some anime I’m currently watching and some more I might have forgotten.

Just a note: I’ve currently watched 9.76 days worth of anime… For those not so skilled in math that’s around 224 hours of anime. Yes, I have no life whatsoever.