December 07, 2008

To Buy -- Mushishi

The Mushishi boxed set came in, so I just put in another order. Along with that I bought an Ayumi figurine (from Magikano) and the first half season of Nadia.

On that last one, it's a straight gamble. It's steampunk, which isn't my favorite genre, but it's considered something of a classic, or so I understand it.

With the last order (the other figurine) I also included a couple of trash titles (Itsudatta My Santa, and something called WildCardz) and I ordered the first season of Avatar.

Fledge has been saying that he really likes Avatar. He and I don't always agree on things (do I ever full agree with anyone?) but I'm willing to gamble on this one, just for the hell of it. And the description does sound at least somewhat interesting.

As to the Ayumi figurine, I wonder whether they included the Baka Neko? It would be awesome if they did, but I think it's too much to hope for. Pity.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 06:04 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 168 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Well, my brothers and dad all liked it - Avatar, I mean.  Considering our widely divergent taste in TV, it was a small miracle, but  Friday nights were New Avatar Episode Night in my house, leading my mother to believe all four of us would never grow up.

Posted by: elenathehun at December 07, 2008 07:37 PM (30eg4)

2 It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 07, 2008 07:49 PM (+rSRq)

3 I will be looking forward to hearing your opinions on Avatar and Nadia.

Avatar, though directly produced for an American audience, has many of the best qualities of a good anime series; the character development, continuity, and overall plot are all excellent, and the dialogue (particularly in the lighter parts) is frequently sharp and witty.  The voice acting didn't impress me, but it's adequate.  I'm hoping that you will like it.

Nadia was one of those series that I enjoyed while I was watching it, but feel no reason to revisit it.

Posted by: pflorian at December 07, 2008 07:53 PM (Fl70g)

4 Hmm, having watched the entirety of Avatar, I can say I really liked it, and thought it was quite good.

Some non-spoiler info, though:  show comes in three seasons, which together tell one story.  However, the first season also comes to its own season arc conclusion, allowing it to stand on its own.  Good practice, IMO, for storytelling of any kind when your not sure you'll get to tell the whole thing.

Also, the writers are merciless 'ship teasers.

Posted by: metaphysician at December 07, 2008 08:04 PM (h4nEy)

5 I really enjoyed Itsudatte My Santa, or at least the first episode.  It's really two OVAs, separated by some amount of time.  The second ep is meh, but the first one is an awful lot of fun.

COMPLETELY inappropriate for Xmas, but fun.  You'll like it.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 07, 2008 08:37 PM (jcrUS)

6 Not sure if you've been warned, but you can pretty much skip 13 or so episodes of Nadia that's been referred to by everyone as Island Episodes.  The show was originally scheduled for 26 episodes.  NHK asked for another 13 episodes after the show became popular, but didn't planned or pay for it.  You'll know you've hit the Island Episodes when the quality of the animation took a nose dive, and you can just skip them.

Posted by: BigFire at December 07, 2008 09:28 PM (JylMM)

7 If it's the Ayumi waitress figure (actually I think that's the only Magikano figure ever made) then ...YES..., Baka Neko is right where he belongs.

Posted by: Doyen at December 07, 2008 10:12 PM (99V/z)

8 I also really enjoyed Avatar. Since I dig magic, I was impressed with the rather creative ways they came up with what "bending" could do. Never seen earth magic as powerful as in this series. Sadly, my favorite character, the blind earthbender Toph is only introduced in the second season.

Posted by: gaiaswill at December 07, 2008 10:19 PM (gctoU)

9 There were several times this year I had to restrain myself from breaking the rules and recommending Avatar here.  Personally, I love it; it is a very neat (and deliberate) mix of American art styles (animated by Koreans, of course) and anime themes, and the writing is an even better mix of styles.

I will warn you that it does start out a little slow, but intensifies over time (the animation budget also clearly increases each season); also, yes, the writers are not only ship teasers, they are in some senses pure evil in a wonderful way.  As a result, Avatar has racked up a *very* lengthy Tropes pages, particularly regarding how many it subverted or outright twisted a knife into; it's hard to avoid the implicit spoilers there, though, so it's probably better not to read it yet.

It also, BTW, happens to be Mako's final role; he passed away after the second season had wrapped.

Posted by: BigD at December 07, 2008 10:54 PM (LjWr8)

10 Thank you for resisting the urge.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 08, 2008 01:02 AM (+rSRq)

11 *coughnottheonlyoneresistingtheurgecough*

Posted by: metaphysician at December 08, 2008 08:34 AM (h4nEy)

12 Gainax managed not to include the fabled train-wreck ending in Nadia, and it was a lot of fun, IMHO.

Don't bother with the movie, though.  The movie is just recycled footage from the TV show with a few cels here and there to tie it all together, and then an utterly forgettable ending.  (Think "recap episode, but longer".)

Still, Nadia is highly annoying when she gets into her eco-nazi mode.

Posted by: atomic_fungus at December 08, 2008 01:02 PM (/gy39)

13 It also, BTW, happens to be Mako's final role; he passed away after the second season had wrapped.

At least the actor they got to replace him did a good job with Uncle's voice.

Posted by: EvilOtto at December 08, 2008 01:02 PM (X+4PK)

14

Probably not as distinctive a voice as Aku.

I can't imagine anyone else doing the role of Aku. It just wouldn't be possible.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 08, 2008 01:51 PM (+rSRq)

15 No, there's a clear difference in his voice, and I'm guessing the writers tried to limit the types of lines that he had to deliver... but he probably does the best job that anybody *could* do to fill those shoes.

For anyone else to even *try* Aku would require running their voice through some sort of synthesizer.  I'd argue that it's been the same with Chris Latta, as well... with computers, you can make it sound close, but it just isn't the same.

Posted by: BigD at December 08, 2008 04:44 PM (LjWr8)

16 Also the most likely reason why season 3 doesn't match the pacing of season 2.  They almost certainly did some relatively last minute rewriting and replotting in order to minimize the stress on Mako's understudy.

Posted by: metaphysician at December 08, 2008 05:13 PM (h4nEy)

17 Yes, but I don't wanna go into that for spoiler reasons.

Posted by: BigD at December 08, 2008 06:55 PM (LjWr8)

18 I hadnt realized Avatar was Mako's final role. But to be honest I hadnt noticed teh change in voice, which either means the understudy did a good job, or I am just colossally oblivious. It would be fun to see Avatar dubbed.. into Japanese, with subtitles.

Posted by: Fledglig Otaku at December 08, 2008 07:27 PM (1Xag8)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:
      [spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)

At Chizumatic, we take pride in being incomplete, incorrect, inconsistent, and unfair. We do all of them deliberately.

How to put links in your comment

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.
14kb generated in CPU 0.0056, elapsed 0.0146 seconds.
21 queries taking 0.0105 seconds, 35 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.