Konnichiwa Anne
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is finally ready to tell the story of how she grew up.
Chance of me Blogging: 200% (Seriously, is there any way for me not to blog this series?)
Finally! I’m really glad to finally see the next World Masterpiece Theatre again, and it doesn’t disappoint. While most of them all have the same start, after the first thirteen episodes they all move into different directions that only have one thing in common: an AWESOME cast of characters. there are definitely differences when compared to the style that the great Isao Takahata used when he adopted the original Anne of Green Gables series, and this episode indeed wasn’t as good as the powerhouse of Ghibli’s founders, but nevertheless it was such a wonderful episode, and you can really see that the little girl in this episode would grow into the lovable girl of the Akage no Anne series. The creators really managed to capture Anne’s endless fantasies about all sorts of things like her pigtails, red cats and other sorts of silly stuff that’s typical of of young children. There is obviously no way that this is ever going to be subbed within the next six months, so I’ll at least try to provide a summary for all of the following episodes for those who want to follow this show anyway. Oh, and for those who are still interested in this series (yeah, both of you), you don’t need to have watched Anne of Green Gables in order to enjoy this series: it’s simply a prequel and a very good standalone series.
07-Ghost
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is about to graduate from some sort of magical power-school.
Chance of me Blogging: 90% (Hell Yeah!)
Finally! I kept wondering what the heck happened to Studio Deen this season, but I’m glad to see that they at least managed to put out one series this season, and it’s promising to be a really good one. This episode formed one heck of an introduction, where already lots of stuff happened without feeling rushed. While it starts out as your average high-school series, a big twist near the end turns this into some sort of tale for revenge. My only gripe is the animation, but then again Studio Deen has never been strong at detailed animation. While I don’t think that this is going to become one of Studio Deen’s top works, it’s still promising to be a very good one.
Souten Kouro
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is leading a powerful army in ancient China
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Really not sure about this one…)
Finally! I was really wondering what happened to Madhouse this season, but here they finally are with their new series… though unfortunately I’m not really positive about it. It feels like some sort of weird cross between Hokuto no Ken and Koutetsu Sangokushi, characters are way too busy trying to look cool rather than being interesting, it’s got the good guys pretty and strong bad guys ugly and weak syndrome so far. The graphics also look really sweet on one side (I appreciated to see finally some good gore), but the big-lipped CG Dragon that ate itself was utterly abysmal. All in all, I here get the feeling of a show that’s trying way too hard. It lacks the impact and feel of the average Madhouse series, and feels more like a Madhouse Wannabe instead.
HOORAY! I’m so happy that you’re covering 07-Ghost!!!! *joy* *joy*
Just saying, you do realise Ghost is a gay shoujou sissyfest right? They’ll start loving each other soon.
@tj han – 07-ghost isn’t shounen-ai x_x it strongly gives fans the vibes though. Like how Nabari no Ou does *sorry if I can’t think of a better way to explain*
Oh come on, my interest should bring the Konnichiwa Anne fanbase up to three. 😛 That said, I’m trying to cut down on my raw watching, so I won’t be going for it now unless your summaries are extrememly detailed and accurate. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Seiki will pick it up once she’s finished Porfy. . .
I’ve heard 07-Ghost to have some pretty strong shounen-ai undertones, and revenge is not entirely interesting to me, so I’ll probably read your posts over downloading and watching the series myself.
Uhh,please don’t get your hopes to high for 07-ghost..For me,the manga was quite good,but as the series goes on,the shonen ai undertones will sort of turn into overtones ^^;But its still quite good,so you should definitely stick with it(even if you’re not blogging it).The only problem I see is if the anime will do its own ending cause the manga is still ongoing.
With me it’s four. Konnichiwa Anne’s first episode was really awesome, I had little tears in my eyes when Anne said ‘So God does sometimes fulfill redheaded girls’ wishes!’ Superbly executed.
I haven’t watched Souten yet (although I will, I like the Three Kingdoms setting), but I’m so-so about 07’s episode. It sufferered from poor pacing, imho, and the directing in the first half was really bad. I liked the scenes involving the antagonists, though – the friendship between Mr Stick-Up-Rectum Aya-tan and Mr Tsubasa-Fuuma-Lookalike is interesting and makes you wonder what sort of circumstances/motives has to be behind them (it makes Aya seem less one-dimensional by proxy?).
This season is turning out to very good.
Also: I kinda love you
Also: I kinda love you, you’re the only blogger I know of with tastes mostly similar to mine.
Why did it cut off my reply? o_O
Then we are five. I think Konnichiwa Anne will probably be the only series that interests me this season. Guess I will have to suffer through the raws, just like for Birdy.
I’m so glad that you’re blogging 07-Ghost. It’s such an amazing manga, and there’s a deep and intricate plot involved, with no cliche’s (except the amnesia) whatsoever. There’s a lot of stuff to be explained though, but that’s okay. And there are no teens-trying-to-save-the-world stuff either. *jumps up and down excitedly* I can’t wait to hear more about what you think of it! 😀
Wow there is some strong hate for 07-Ghost.
As for the shounen-ai undertones, it obvious that they are there since this manga was the first actual manga a doujin artist has done, when they switched from shounen-ai and yaoi doujin to manga. Though there are the undertones I don’t think they become overtones. From what I’ve read in the manga, it’s not even really considered shounen-ai since the main character is just a kid.
But other than that, for Konnichiwa Anne I had a question. I’ve about 2 years of college Japanese. Do you think that would be enough to understand the series raw?
ryuji: well, if you’ve been to college, then I don’t think that you’ll have much trouble with Konnichiwa Anne. There is a lot of dialogue, but most of it is simply the talk of a 4-year old.
It’s very disappointing to see that no one is subbing Konnichiwa Anne (which is even worse for me because I don’t understand Japanese), however I’ll try watching a couple of raw episodes and I’ll follow your summaries closely – please be specific ^^ If I feel that it’s killing the joy of the series for me, I’ll unfortunately have to wait for a fansub group. *sigh*
From the pictures I’ve seen, I’m glad they managed to be faithful to Anne’s physical appearance (even her facial expressions look familiar). On the other hand, even though it was expectable, the backgrounds’ design is far from being comparable to Akage no Anne’s. I’m sure I’ll miss seeing each tree drawn with detail and care, I remember it used to give me the impression that whoever drew those trees, they drew them with love. Anyway, it’s WMT so I know I’ll enjoy it ^^
So basically you’re going to blog Konnichiwa Anne twice? That’s just setting yourself up for spam ;p
Seriously though, I don’t really like it. Though this is mainly a complaint about the negative ratings. They make percentages rather useless for any purpose other than a quick stab at the creators who prolly aren’t reading your blog anyway. And, well, yeah… I know most blogs are just there to be emo and bitch at people, but I thought you were going for (somewhat) serious reviews with this one.
Am I mistaken?
Well, I only go below 0% for shows I don’t intend to take seriously at all, and I believe that the only shows I gave a negative rating are the ones only aimed to little kids (like the beyblade one). Usually I’m indeed serious with this blog, but once in a while I do like to make fun of the really, really bad shows. 😉
Thanks for blogging Anne, hopefully some group decides to sub it eventually!!!
Count me in as interested in Konnichiwa Anne! Since the subbing group that was considering doing it dropped out, I’m happy to hear you’ll be blogging it. I haven’t watched the episode yet but it looks like this will be another winner for WMT!
I really have to agree with your opinion of Anne, I loved the first episode. I also want to blog this series but my Japanese language skills aren’t good enough to take on such a long series, so unless someone subs this series I’ll just follow your reviews, thanks.
I think the first episode of 07-Ghost was the lamest I saw in a good while… Heck, I got the strongest Harry Potter vibes, with a Malfoy in the middle and stuff… While the mistery seems interesting, the lameness is just too high… Not sure I’ll tune in for the second episode
‘gay sissyfest?’ Nice to see that a healthy portion of the anime blogging community is still immature and homophobic.
Ooooh. 07-G is nice. Just finished watching the first episode. I was impressed with the soundrack and I was mildly surprised when I saw Naoki Meada in the opening sequence. Just in case you don’t know him. Naoki is behind the infamous Dance Dance Revolution. I’m getting the vibes that he will be involved in the music for this series; I could be wrong though. Also, Noria (former BeForU, signed with bemani etc) sang the ED as well, so that’s another sign. I’m not sure if he’s going to handle the soundtrack or just the OP/ED. I doubt he’ll be involved since I can’t find any English sites that will point his involvement with the series. But then again, I could be wrong.
Another revenge based anime, yet I enjoyed it. Listening to the music in the show for a second time (what, I saw it yesterday lol), it was definitely quite humorous; I mean it was so classic it was funny. Still, I am curiously amused, which is most likely due to personal bias. The grayscale flashbacks were effective and just as you said psgels, the story didn’t feel rushed. Patiently awaiting the second episode.
By the way perrin4869, you spell it mystery, not mistery. Also, although I understand where you’re going with the harry potter business, the themes are fairly different, and frankly, I really don’t feel like having an argument about them either.
07-ghost’s animation is nowhere compared to the artwork of its manga….