Monday, April 12, 2010

Spring's Not-So-Ecchi Anime

Within a flash of pantsu indeed... Remember, the word "pantsu" can mean any ol' underwear, even boxer shorts... Yes, after all that ecchiness from the previous post, we go to the not-so-ecchi stuff. I'm sure there are some ecchiness to it, but not as visual as Kissxsis or Ichiban Ushimaro Daimaoh.

This is actually safe for work, so go ahead and kill some time at work ;)

Arakawa Under the Bridge
Since I already showed one screenshot of Arakawa, I might as well start with it. I don't know much about this series honestly. I did like the description I read about it somewhere and since it's SHAFT animated, I'm sure it's all quirky and humorous. The main male character is Ichinomiya Kou, who tries to live without being indebted to anyone. Cue Nino-san who lives under the bridge and saved his sorry ass when he's about to drown. There goes his life.

Yes, I will!

So to repay his debt Kou asks what Nino wants in return. Nino asks for his love, but of course since she's from Venus (wat?), she's ok either way if he doesn't fall in love. It's really Kou who wants to repay any debt and gets all stressed out if he can't pay it back.

Aww... no knee pits...

Along the way he'll meet another weird character who's a kappa, but might also be a guy in suit... Yes, it's very strange, but it's just too freaking weird to ignore. Not much ecchi from the first episode, but I seem to be infatuated with Nino-san the Venusian... Let's hope for the best, eh?

Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol LilPri
Title's too long, I'm not continuing to watch this... Well, that's not the only reason. This is basically a grade school anime about young girls transforming into idols who possessed the qualities of Snow White, Cinderella and Kaguya-hime. So since they're idols, they have to sing and dance and collect some happiness from people yada-yada. Yes, I'm not too thrilled about this show, not sure why I even watched it in the first place. The one part I hate is from the above picture... They use computer animation to do their dances. The cg models look worse than a MikuMikuDance! If they can do the video below so well in MMD, why not this one?? The singing's awful too... NEXT!


K-ON!! (Season 2)
Too many people talked about this already, so I won't say much. I know there's a lot of people in opposing spectrum regarding this anyway. I'd have to say I'm somewhere in the middle; I like it, but it's not that big of a deal, really ^^; I do like the Yui guitar solo in the beginning, and the OP video is quite good. That song is kinda weird though.

Ecchiest picture I could find from episode 1 and it's from the OP video...

Knee pits!

Kaichou wa Maid-sama
Hmm... another typical shoujo fare. I think I've read and watched too many shoujo shows. I was reminded a lot of things as I watched this and even more so after finishing the first episode. Too many things that are similar to something else. But I am a sucker for these kinds of shows... So I'll probably continue watching it. Basically a very strict school president got caught in the act of working her part-time job as a maid in a maid cafe. Very modern premise, but underneath that modern layer, it's all the same kind of shoujo.

Impending raep! No, not really... The good guy stopped it in time. The maid uniforms look good though, the ecchiest thing in the show. The school uniform, however... Awful combination of colours!

Senkou no Night Raid
Hrrmm... How should I start this? I didn't like it as much as I thought? No, I never did give this one much thought. I was just watching anything that's new. The strange Chinese dub sounded bad in the beginning, but it did pique my curiosity a little bit. I was wondering why they have the need to do that. In the end, I was not interested much in this show. Like Ningyo said about this show, "X-Men no Night Raid", it's got some super powers and such,but with a time limit. I thought that was enough to hold my interest, but the historical and the political content got in the way of my enjoying the show.

Yukina's probably the only one that held my interest in the show. The super powers are so limited, I'd rather go see the X-Men animated series again.

At some point, it did remind me of Read or Die because of the combination of jazzy music and action, but definitely not as good as Read or Die. Maybe I'll just go watch Read or Die again.

Uh yeah, sorry... Another one I'm infatuated with. Short hair and the two moles(?) under her eye makes her look quite cute.

She's probably the only reason why I'll watch episode 2. I'll give it another chance... maybe.

Heroman
And now for the main event... The anime co-created by Stan Lee, and boy, is it obvious that he got his hands on this. Very basic premise: Alien invasion, boy gets toy robot, toy robot get hit by alien storm and turn into giant fighting robot. I won't say much about this since I'm sure a lot of people (like Snark) talked about it already. Instead I'll do some parallel comparisons with Spider-Man. I think I read too much Spider-Man, that I can't help but make these comparisons. Joey Jones (above) here is the main character. A boy who gets picked on and lives by himself with an elderly woman... So does Peter Parker. And hey, their initials are double letters too

Older black (African American, if you wanna be PC about it) man who supports Pete...Joey, at his workplace. Just like Robbie Robertson.

That's obviously Aunt May... posing as Joey's grandmother.

Joey's parents who are deceased... Just like Richard and Mary Parker.

Lina's legs/thighs.

Lina, who's a mix of Liz Allen and Mary Jane Watson, a cheerleader who's interested in Pe... Joey. I'm getting confused here...

Lina is quite cute. One of the reasons for me to keep watching.

Can't remember their names right now, so I'll call'em Flash Thompson and his football jock friends. 

 We interrupt this regularly schedule program to bring you this knee pit.

Hmm... hard to pinpoint for this one, but Psy here is like Harry Osborne. Except Harry's rich. So Psy becomes cool and given crutches to even it out.

The teacher... Can't say there's any similar character in Spider-Man, but damn she's hot!

Hot for a teacher?

A goofy Dr. Curt Connors...

And it ain't a Stan Lee joint without the main man showing up in a cameo. He seems to be in the cafe where Peter works all the time, morning, noon and night. I'm sure he's got other Marvel Comics movies he can do a cameo in. I guess there is a break in between Iron Man 2 shooting and Thor & Captain America.

I can't help but put in one more shot of Lina =P

And here's Spider-Man himself! Who looks like a cross between Iron Man and the Hulk... Heroman is the one who does all the action, with Peter confirming the action by smashing the gauntlet on his wrist (like Ben 10). It's not a bad show and the animation's great! But I can't help but draw these comparisons as I watch this. Maybe it'll stray away from Spidey in the second episode?

On another note, Yunamon brought this up: Heroman can also be written as HEroMan. I'll leave you to ponder about that... More to come later on... I still haven't seen Angel Beats and the regular edition of Working!!

16 comments:

  1. Well loving "K-ON!!" but then again I'm an avid fan.

    Surprisingly liked "Kaichou Ha Maid-sama" as well, nothing spectacular but rather good so far.

    Another series I like so far is "Working!!", absolutely hilarious. XD

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  2. Ecchi-Ero-Man have yet to rouse my interest... But seeing Stan Lee co created it, I'm curious now... 0_0

    Working!! is highly recommended as well! As well as Mayoi Neko Overrun...

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  3. "Stan lee, in America!" Hahah SO far Im not liking the manga, but the Heroman seems promising, so Ill give it a go, that and SD gundam is almost bad ass. Btw WHERE THE HELL IS GIANT KILLING! Not trying to force you or anything[I actualy am] but the anime has English speak in there, something I loved during the first episode of Eden of the East.

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  4. @Smithy: Yeah, I'm just casual ^^; I like "Working!!" too. Really good comedy :D

    @yunamon: Heroman's not too bad. If you like Stan Lee's work then you'll like this one. I saw Mayoi Neko Overrun as seen in my previous post :)

    @GunStray: LoL for some reason I thought this other show translated as "Giant Killing", so I didn't realize it's a different show. I'll take a look into it next.

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  5. niiiiceee >< though Arakawa has gotten my interest for some odd reason >< watched the first ep and got hooked pfftttt lol XD
    I just noticed instead of "comments" you put pantsu XDD

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  6. Hahahahha guy version of Shimapan? LOL!!! Nino chan kawaii ^^; Kappa man is kinda... scary o_o And Heroman, is not our type of Anime lol Did U watch "Working!"? It's cute :P

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  7. Okay you did (regarding "Working!") should have read comments before I hit submit ^^;

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  8. Even so, the opening screencap didn't have to be Kou in his boxers...

    What is it with MMD in anime nowadays? Using it for the ED as well - that just comes off as lazy. It's charming when it's a budgetless project done by enthusiasts in their spare time, but it's just not in the right flavor to use such a thing for commercial series...

    That's the thing with Night Raid - telepathy is so prominent and accessible by all the characters, and there's like a dozen psychics in X-men. I'm just bothered by how lackluster the powers are; I'd probably be more comfortable if they just omitted them entirely. Sora no Oto had no supermen. That's assuming Night Raid is supposed to be a spiritual successor of some sort - I've no knowledge about this whole 'anime no chikara' gig.

    That's a nice call on Peter Parker; and perhaps, a lot of other comic book protagonists of his time.

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  9. @Argyle: I had a bad sub on the first version I saw, so I was pissed even though I liked the show... But it's good as I expected from SHAFT. Too bad it still says "comments" on this page ^^;

    @chun: Ooooh yeah! That's right... that is technically shimapan, eh? XD I noticed Nino struck a pose that was similar to Senjougahara! That was awesome! And I did watch the pre-broadcast version of Working, but I didn't want to pass judgment until the actual broadcast. Love it so far!

    @Tim: It's the ecchiest thing from the shows I reviewed here... I think it's fine with MMD, but they ought to make it MUCH better than what's out there, otherwise it's just being cheap. I notice 2 of these computer animation dances now... They're being cheap by not actually hand-animating it...

    The time limit on powers is kinda strange too. I don't remember any X-Men who's got a time limit on their power... Peter Parker was actually the only one of his kind at the time. Very angsty, which made it very popular with the kids back then because he had to deal with similar problems that they had. Nowadays it's almost overdone.

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  10. Arakawa Under the Bridge has become the anime to watch for me this season. I love the OP and the art style.

    Mayoi Neko, surprisingly, is also something I'm going to be watching.

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  11. @Yi: The OP animation was quite wild. The song isn't as catchy yet though, unlike Working!!

    Mayoi Neko isn't too bad. It's almost like Tsundere Overrun than Neko Overrun, heh.

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  12. Still need to watch season 1 of K-On!WTFISWRONGWITHME!
    And Heroman looks pretty nifty too

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  13. @Radiant: Tis ok. Don't have to watch right away. It sure took me a while to watch the first episode of this season's supposed big hit, Angel Beats.

    I still haven't seen more of Heroman yet. Still can't get over the Spider-Man thing yet :P

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  14. hm, I'm watching K-On!! and slowly but surely watching Arakawa, for now. I'm not sure why I even watch it, it's just so weird I can't help but be curious as to what the hell is going on. Might be picking up Heroman. I'm catching up on a lot of shows that I never finished this season mostly.

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  15. FOR ME K-ON!! IS A BIG DEAL, BESTO SHOW EVAAAA~~~!!!

    lol now being serious; I'm getting more and more detached from the new seasons... it kinda worries me, but it's not like much can be done about it. I'm gonna check out Heroman though, Joey looks like a trap.

    BTW Azunyan with side ponytail is MAI WAIFU. Just wanted to say it somewhere lol

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  16. @Yaku: LOL for a second I almost believed you there :P Well you are still a student, so there're a lot of important things. But it's good to be late on the season because then you'll hear what's good and what to skip. I know someone who doesn't even watch anything til the series ends ^^;

    LoL ok, let it be official here that Azunyan with side ponytail is Yaku's WAIFU XD Will she wear the Rei dress or Kaworu/Shinji? :P

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