So autumn (Fall) is almost upon us in the northen hemisphere and I have resorted to releasing my anime blog every 2 weeks for now, seems like a logical step since I have been busy with my DJ endeavours and the long holiday weekend is almost on us. That and I have fallen behind in a few animes except for my out right favourites so far
But the big news recently is that a lot of anime sites (esp download and torrent sites) are down due to DDos attacks, which rumor says seem to have originated from the Japanese government itself in their attempt to crack down on anime/manga piracy… still nothing confirmed thou but will be interesting to see what happens, however the episodes are still poping up on sites like KAT, Tokyo Toshokan and PB but for now it seems that a lot of these sites have indeed fallen from grace…
Akame Ga kill
Wow, at first I know people were a little off put by how the tone jumped around so rapidly, but by now I am sure people are use to it, it is still brutal and we have even seen that not every character is safe with 2 casualties already amongst the nightraid members (and not the ones I expected, thou I guess Baluat was a little obvious, cool that Tatsumi gets his Imperial arms thou) The last episode thou was a little weird at the end, why would he enter the tournament in the first place if he is meant to be an assassin, creating the obvious love interest for Lady Esdeath on the side too
Mahouka
Still not eough on the action side of things but I am still looking forward to it every weekend, but the whole brother/sister thing that is going on is really, really weird and seems to make no sense without knowing any of their past which is annoying, but apart from that I am still enjoing the show and getting to see some ass kicking outside of the school tournament
SAO2 – GGO
Well as expected this is still delivering at a slightly better pace than the first season and is making more sense at times than the first season which I am enjoying. There is less skipping forward and its interesting how it has all been tied in with Laughing Coffin too. Interested to see what happens next after the cliff hanger we were left with last episode, also, is death gun actually a part of the game or is he like a random ‘program’ that can come and go as he pleases?
Naruto
Well, loving the reunion of team 7 and the 3 way deadlock, that was pretty mean, cool that the previous Hokage are out in force too, weird that Oroichmaru is actually helping them (not to mention Sasuke’s change of heart) But least the war is coming to its climax by the looks of it and there should at least be a mean showdown between Madara and Hashirama… hopefully
One Piece
I have to admit, while watching all these other anime bolt forward at a million miles an hour, OP is basically the opposite, but given its popularity and huge world, I am glad they have the luxury to take it slow and fill in the entire story without having to skip forward missing important things that other anime often have to do. The Riku kingdom and history of them and Doflamingo is pretty cool and learning how he manipulated them all. But its getting to the point where the inevitable showdown between everyone is coming very close and almost losing patience for it to hurry up and come! But at the same time I am glad it isnt rushing ahead
I haven’t properly caught up on Agrevollen, Aldnoah Zero, Tokyo Esp and Tokyo Ghoul but will endeavour to do so in the following weeks
Recomended Anime
Air Gear
So, I found this anime randomly after searching for some fan made anime music videos to use with my dj sets and I came across someone who had used Air Gear in a pretty decent video, so I decided to check out the anime itself, glad I did! The story follows a boy named Iki and is set in a world where technology has advanced enough to allow people to basically have high powered electric rollker skates/blades with enough torque and power to allow people to ride them at great speeds, up walls and jump great distances. Thus taking extreme sports to a whole other level and giving people ‘wings’ (a common theme during the story) The story revolves around Iki learning to ride these Air Treks (in what is like a futuristic version of aggressive skating, with crews/gangs, underground races etc etc) and as he forms his own team to ride and compete against other ‘Storm Riders’ and learns that he is the ‘chosen’ one. His sisters are also part of one of the legendary A-T gangs and as the story begins, he is quickly thrown into the world revolving around Air Treks. I liked this anime because its a little different to others having an extreme sport component to it, thou as it progresses it still follows your usual anime formula of the hero on his quest thrown in the deep end only to rise from adversity, meeting his fellows compatriots etc etc, coupled with your usual weird goings on and typical shower and bathroom scenes and awkward moments thrown in for good measure (because seriously, whats an anime with out the big brestead girl getting commented on in the shower scene) But apart from the usual quirks and weirdness that is Japanese anime, this is an enjoyable watch with some interesting characters and some even weirder abilities (Akito and Agito are hillarious at times, thou also extremely disturbing as well) Add all this together and you have an anime worth watching. Oh, and the English dub version is actually pretty good! One of the rare times they get it right (swearing and all too!) The only let down was that it finished just as it was getting good, however an OVA was released that was pretty good and follows on the story further in the future but again it was only short so it is left very open ended
Animation 6/10 Its not that impressive but the characters are well drawn and have enough differences to make it ok
Characters 7/10 There are some interesting characters and some really well done interactions between some of them
Plot 5/10 Unfortunately the plot is nothing special, not to say it isnt good, its just not going to leave you going ‘god dam’
Overall 6/10 This is one of those watch if you have the time animes, it isnt mind blowing amazing but it is enjoyable enough to check it out and has a different concept than most animes but at the end of the day it does fundamentally follow the usual formula. Not on the A list of must watch, but on the B list of worth a watch
Throwback Character
Conan The Adventurer
Grey Wolf
Male
Wizard of Xanthus
Mostly magical based attacks but also physically strong and proficent in hand to hand combat
Use his staff as his outlet for his magical power, gets signifacntly upgraded with a star metal ‘Claw of Heaven’, also has his brother and sister were turned into wolves who also aid him
The serious type, wise but also similar to the others and can be quick tempered
Grey Wolf was my favourite character from this series, mainly because at the time I had a wizard obsession and he was a more bad ass wizard who not only could do magic but also hold his own in a fight.
The series itself, while old, was enjoyable, coming off the back of the successful movies, the cartoon show seemed to enjoy some success (basically any show that makes it to NZ had to have been somewhat successful at the time) The story flows different to the movies but still has a lot of the combat, thou obviously toned down for children. They made a nice little get around introducing the snake men and star metal that baneshes them from our dimension, basically allowing for combat but remvoing blood. Using the story line of the serpant set which was a main plot line in one of the movies and expanding on it more was a good move and made the cartoon feel really well thought out for what it was. The plot basically follows Conan as he is on a quest to reverse the spell placed on his family that turned them to stone, which ends up becoming a quest to put a stop to the Stigen forces and Set’s plans to invade their dimension. Along his quest he meets up with fellow heroes who aid him along the way. The good thing is that the other heroes come in and out of the series so its not always the same combination for each episode, allowing for some good cahracter interatctions. The other good thing was that the series had a definitive finale for the major plot line (which often wasnt the case for cartoons of the time) even thou some minor plots were left open ended, it was nice to be able to watch this from start to finish
akadjblaze 