What are you Watching?

[_D_]

Not anime but I like to go here on occasion to check out what's new in old video footage. Mostly I check the od toy commercials:

http://www.retrontario.com/

[greg]

This weekend, I watched Devil Hunter Yohko OVAs 1 and 2. Ilj mentioning this back in December prompted me to watch it for the first time. It's pretty cool, with a definite 80's/early 90's vibe. I geeked out a bit in the beginning of the 2nd episode, when Yohko was laying on the floor of her bedroom. Scattered about her was a PC Engine Duo, a Sega Megadrive, a Super Famicom, a Sega Gamegear, and even an Atari Lynx! Wow! Even a Lynx!

[_D_]

I have a lynx upstairs. I play Klax on it occasionally...

Started to finally get around to watching Dragonball Kai. Started a couple years ago but the death of my mother put lots of things on hold for the past 3 years. It's interesting that I REALLY do enjoy this stuff! In its own way, it's like stuff the Shaw Bros. studio was doing on the cheap back in the 1970s but without the scifi theme. Just fun...

[llj]

Birdy the Mighty Decode and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles season 2.

This Birdy anime is not quite as stylish as the old Kawajiri OVA, but there's some really interestingly scribbly animation at work here and Birdy's body is really well drawn--it's one of the few depictions of a plausibly athletic super-hot female body in anime. Great animation in the hip and leg work during the action scenes, and dig those super toned arms!

Tsubasa S2 is basically what it is. It's a pretty generic show but if you dig RPG-like plots, this show is definitely a solid guilty pleasure in that vein. By season 2 the Clamp references are getting a bit repetitive, so if you're here for that, might as well just stop at season 1 and skip season 2. The anime doesn't end.

[greg]

Tonight we finished DVD3 of Rose of Versailles.

[kndy]

Just got Shout! Factory's $15 set of 3 GAIKING compilation movies and watched a bit. Amazingly, this new dubbed version (by William Winckler, of TEKKAMAN! THE SPACE! KNIGHT! fame), produced in 2008 or 2009, is every bit as awful and stilted as the old Jim Terry dub of the TV series. Japanese names are retained, but there are some odd casting choices (the Chinese jet pilot dude is played by SF writer David Gerrold) and the scripts are terrible - our hero Sanshiro says "heck" every other line.

Still, it's that special, crazy, sketchy mid-70s Toei super robot animation, and it's pretty cheap. I'm having fun watching, and will probably grab the similar STARZINGER compilation that's coming out in August.

Now on the third movie but is this really produced in 2008 or 2009 because the dub is bad as things anime on TV in the '70s or early '80s. Everytime someone is in pain...they don't even try to sound like they are in pain...they are like "Oh!", "Ah!", "Oh!"....it is a shame if bad dubbing like this was still being made today. Unless it was purposely done.

I'm guessing these films are episodes condensed to films? Because the pacing is really off to be regular films. Lol..

[llj]

Finished Birdy the Mighty Decode. Season 2 of this series was extremely well plotted, with multiple elements and subplots seamlessly merging into the main plot. The sophistication of the writing during the middle of season 2 seriously could have been American cable-TV calibre. Unfortunately, as with most modern anime, it ends in your rather typical rushed anime manner. "If it had just 2-3 more episodes," the saying goes...but that always seems to be the case for 12-13 episode seasons, isn't it? They always need an extra 2-3 episodes.

On the other hand, many 26 episode anime shows today are obviously originally meant to be 13 episodes, and thus run way too long.

[greg]

My daughter has fallen in love with Urusei Yatsura. We have a "Saturday morning cartoons" tradition, and she wanted to watch UY. She doesn't know the name of the show, so she just points to my Lum poster and says, "I want to watch that show!" I also finished the 2nd disc in the first Gundam TV series collection. Those have shot way up in value now that Bandai Entertainment USA is gone.

[Animusubi]

My daughter has fallen in love with Urusei Yatsura. We have a "Saturday morning cartoons" tradition, and she wanted to watch UY. She doesn't know the name of the show, so she just points to my Lum poster and says, "I want to watch that show!" I also finished the 2nd disc in the first Gundam TV series collection. Those have shot way up in value now that Bandai Entertainment USA is gone.

That. Is. Adorable.

[usamimi]

Awww! A little Lum fan! ;3; So cute~