New crop of fansubs showing up for this season. So far not much has really caught my fancy as really good, but there’s some that are entertaining. This is all subjective of course, and some judgements I make on a single show and some I totally miss or pass over as there’s so much out there I don’t have the time to watch it all. So here we go, in no particular order:
Murder Princess
Princess flees castle to escape a coup literaly bumps into ruthless mercenary/bounty hunter and their souls (conveniently) switch. Freaky Friday? The shin Princess charges back to the castle on a flame riding chopper (at least I find her more interesting than Nicholas Cage…) and proceeds to slice & dice. Oh my, what has happened to the demure Princess? Art & character designs are decent but nothing out of ordinary, animation is nothing to write home about, lots of animation resistance. Perhaps worth wasting some time on if bored.
Overdrive
Um, okay, this is a sports anime, I can just hear Dave running away. It’s got bikes… road bikes, and boys in tighties. I can hear Dave screaming and running real fast now. At least this isn’t a thinly veiled merchandising ploy to sell kids toys. Ep starts with how for the first time in history of the Tour De France there is a Japanese rider poised to win. So I guess the rest of this series will be about how this school loner becomes the hope of Japan after being manipulated by the girl he has a crush on. So what’s the messsage here, only losers ride bikes? Hey, I resent that. Anyway, I guess this is worth wasting some time on. It has some moments. Again art & animation decent. Detail on the bikes is quite good & acurate, Shimano & Trek are credited sponsors after all.
Claymore
Medievel setting, variation on the half human-half vampire hunter theme. I can’t decide what to think of this one. It’s being played totally serious, no humor, and also pretty cliched. I’m still watching it, but I don’t find anything really compelling in it.
Seirei no Moribito
Finally something of note. CG has certainly come a long way, anime has learned how to utilize it in a way that works with the traditional style, instead of having it stick out like a sore thumb screaming, hey look at what we can do, how cool is this? The art and animation in this show is outstanding. Looks like prob same people who did Blood+ if I’m not imagining things. I’m also impressed that they are keeping the quality up beyond the first episode. Now what about the show? Hmm, looks like trouble in royalty again. The royal prince (setting looks Tibety) becomes the target of assisination, by his own father the king, after he becomes bedeviled by some spirit. His mother the queen witnesses the prowess of the female warrior Balsa when she rescues the prince from an “accident” and procures the services of said warrior to take the prince away and protect him. And so the adventure begins…. There’s definitely enough here to keep me interested & wanting to see more.
Tons more to come!