Birdy the Mighty Decode 2
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets assigned to track down a bunch of escaped convicts.
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Hell yeah!)
Whoa, a bit theme of the sequels this season seems to be angsting over what happened at the end of its previous season: first Shikabane Hime, then Druaga no Tou, and now this one. Still, Birdy the Mighty did this the best of the three, simply because it had so many other things to do in this episode so that Senkawa didn’t have too much time to remember Nakasugi. And unlike the previous two, this series has yet to show what it can really do with its potential. This episode promised a grand story, lots of new characters were introduced and some characters who seemed as mere fillers in the first season show up again as well. The new OP and ED are also much better, there’s a brand new OST, so overall all signs point in the direction that the second season is going to be much better than the first. Just, what was up with that strange insert song at the end?
Major 5th Season
Short Synopsis: Our lead character spent the fourth season in a foreign country and finally arrived back home, it seems.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Yet to see the first four seasons…)
Seriously, is there no end to the sequels this Winter-season? In any case, I watched this episode in an attempt to get motivated to watch the first season. So, it’s a bit unfortunate that there was hardly any baseball whatsoever in this episode, but nevertheless I enjoyed the quiet mood of the episode. The characters were nostalgic about things that I obviously never saw, but it nevertheless was an enjoyable episode. I might try to follow this fifth season, depending on how long it remains interesting to me and whether it can prove to be significantly different from One Outs (since two baseball shows airing at the same time may be a bit too much).
Kemono no Souja Erin
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets is the daughter of a famous dragon caller
Chance of me Blogging: 50% (It would be 100% if it wasn’t for the producers)
Now this is what I’m talking about! This series is definitely the most creative and original out of the new shows that aired this season. I love the stylized look of the main character, or the very stylish animation when the dragons attacked. The slice of life moments in this series were also wonderful, though there’s one big problem with this series: its creators. I took a small look at the different staff members that are working on this series and it looks like we’ve got the worst people on the Production IG-arsenal working on it: Trans Arts. While I liked Wellber when it aired, I now see that it was way too cheesy, Toshokan Sensou was unbalanced and Chocolate Underground was just plain bad, and they still get to produce series? Why hasn’t Production IG simply fired them, and more importantly: what happened to their good people? Did they all quit at the same time to join Madhouse, or something? I loved this episode, but I can already see it going downhill: the series composition was done by the guy who did the series composition of Real Drive and Blood, and the production coordination was done by the guy who did the production coordination of Saiunkoku Monogatari and The Twelve Kingdoms: all excellent stories on themselves, but the former two were really unbalanced, and the latter two had no conclusion, and I have enough reasons to believe that these people were directly responsible for their series’ respective flaws. Just think what might happen once you combine them all into one series!
KnS’s biggest weakness, as far as I’m concerned, is the narrative style, which is like a cross between Hi no Tori and Nausicaa, but might not work on something longer if it doesn’t have as unique a story. The animation is indeed cool, and though the aforementioned traits combined make it feel like a kid’s show, I’m happy that it doesn’t get all blobbish when characters move, like so much else recently. And yeah, I’ve also been worried about the staff-not a promising lineup, but with the original novel authored by the same guy as Moribito, it may yet work out.
I actually like the approach Major has taken and wish most long running anime series followed suit. Showing 2 cours worth of material, having a 2 cour break and than repeating is far superior method to adapting ongoing manga series than what Naruto and Bleach do. Which is by adding horrible filler arcs and padding out chapters so they don’t overtake the manga.
As for the good studios of I.G are doing.. well xxxHOLIC OVAs for one. Another is Miyamoto Musashi: Souken ni Haseru Yume Movie with screenplay and concept by Oshii.
Kamiyama Kenji is getting a series ready for Spring 09 in Higashi no Eden and Sengoku Basara is also coming in Spring.
Don’t forget that Winter like Summer is just a minor season, the big seasons are Spring and Fall.
Birdy 02 was great, especially the lifelike animation which is familiar of Kannagis.
My only complaint is the lack of action which the First Season’s pilot had, but the skirmish at the beginning was great and the rest of the episode set up some superb characters, mystery and development. Its OP and ED is good stuff as well. I’m certainly looking forward to this series.
Though, if possible, can you provide a small summary of what the plot actually was? I heard “Ryunka” but I have no idea in what aspect it was being used. That’s providing you actually know, heh.
And it’s good to see Erin was interesting. It’s certainly something I have been looking out for over the past few months, but until there are some subs I don’t want to try to tackle it.
Kemono no Souja Erin is in my personal top3, along with Ride Back and Genji Monogtatari. I’m really looking forward to blog those 3 hope_to_be masterpieces!
Oh boy.
I think I will like Birdy the Mighty even more this time around. That gave it a really nice feeling.
I hope Kemono no Souja Erin will give us a good feeling as well, but we will see.
The original creator who has written the Moribito series ha also made a book of this one so I hope they will keep on track along the story.
I totally missed that Kemono no Souja Erin was out this time around. I’ve read four of Uehashi’s novels (all from the Moribito series) and they were all pretty fucking fantastic, so definitely worth a look, even if it is from the director of the horrible Library Wars.
senerikfred – Uehashi Nahoko is a woman, FYI.
Major is definitely worth the long haul IMO, but at five seasons now, it probably seems pretty intimidating. The quiet and yet meteoric rise of Shigeno feels somehow unique because of all the inklings of comedy, slice of life and a few epic baseball moments.