Fansubban

FMA2: Already posted about this so I’m not gonna say much aside from VAs makin’ my head hurt and QC is super cool7

Mazinger: I have no idea what the fuck is going on in this show, apparently this is normal. I’ve never watched any Mazinger or anything like/related to it before so I’m totally lost, though I’m told that being familiar with the other stuff doesn’t really make much of a difference. But regardless it looks pretty cool.

Regular Watchan

Valkyria: I got bored a few minutes into the first episode despite being intrigued by the OP (mostly Kaiserlouch, though to be perfectly honest I dunno if FukuJun’s voice seems right coming out of that kind of character design….). I ended up FFing through the rest of the episode to see if anything interesting looked like it was happening but it didn’t seem like it. I *want* to like it though so I’m not giving up on it yet.

Guin Saga: Not much to say yet other than I didn’t feel like FFing through the episode. It’s a pretty standard fantasy series premise so far (castle/whatever gets sacked, prince and princess escape just in the nick of time, they run into some badass dude who helps them… etc). I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but at this point in the story it’s difficult to pass any kind of judgement about where it’ll go or if it’ll be good. The artwork is nice and it looks interesting. I kind of like how the brother’s the wuss and the sister’s the one in charge, but then again that’s not even terribly uncommon for this genre either.

Pandora Hearts: Initial reaction––mmm cravats. IS DAT SOME HOMOLUST I SPY IN THE OP? If so A+++

Hayate S2: It looks weird… why are all the colors so much more saturated? The lighter look was so much nicer and more relaxing. Also, no trap Hayate in the first episode = :(

07-Ghost: Mmm… I really like these uniforms. The artwork looks very nice, I didn’t notice any serious QUALITY but of course there’s the tradeoff of the animation being more limited as a result but it’s not really that noticeable most of the time, especially given how much detail is in most of the character designs (maybe this is just because I like clothes, but I was impressed at the attention to seams and stuff). I dunno what it is about the style of coloring they’re using for the characters’ eyes but it’s very appealing/they stand out a lot (it could just be the contrast between the highly saturated eye colors and the rest of the color palette being more toned down, because the drawing/shading style itself seems fairly generic, but the eyes really pop for whatever reason). Going on about the art style mainly because I don’t have much to say about the story, it seems pretty… generic overly-complicated angsty fantasy school drama with homoerotic over/under/everywhere tones? Not that it couldn’t do something interesting with it, I’m just not expecting much from it in that area (honestly it feels like it’s a VN adaptation but it’s not). Anyhow, pretty boys, sexy uniforms and the chance for the aforementioned pretty boys to end up in compromising positions with each other? That’s more than enough for me!

Sengoku Basara: Oh man, this is so awesome. The animation is just gorgeous and ITS SO DAMN COOL LOOKIN. I guess it’s to be expected of Production I.G. Also WAKAMOTO. I don’t know/care what the plot is but it looks fucking awesome. I think I like the blue guy better than the red guy…

Phantom: I dunno what else to say about it other than it feels like it’s trying waaay too hard to look like something from Prod. I.G. (admittedly this could just be a result of watching it right after Sengoku Basara…) Story’s left me decidedly :| and the animation’s just, it’s not lacking in fluidity but it still manages to look cheap and amateurish somehow (and the character art wasn’t really pretty/unique enough to forgive shitty animation).

To Watch

Shangri-la – Dunno, lol
Eden of the East