So NightWizard. I decided to watch it without remembering any series description. The first impression I had was a cross between “awesome” and “lol” because of this deep movie announcer sort of voice reading off the history. Just struck me as particularly funny.

Moving right along there was fighting right away. Fighting at the very start is always a good sign. That and there was a floating castle, princess, flying car, and a fun trap. “Reply with yes or hai.” That turned into a signature line it did. It also started to get a bit old.

Another immediate impression an episode or two in. That this could be bad with Oji-sama. Mysterious benefactors are always mysterious for a reason. Usually a bad one that has some sort of negative impact on the plot.

It was mildly amusing that chemistry came in handy. The space rabbits however were awesome. Remind me a bit of the killer rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Someone’s got a sense of humor, somewhere. When Kirihito-kun saves Elis you get the feeling there’s something a bit special about the both of them.

Then we meet Nightmare. He is a character. I haven’t come across one of them lately, so it’s good to have done so. One of those really funny and amusing guys. Much more fun than Anzelotte. More fun than the castle sitting on a giant spaceship, or the random fact that guys in the castle wear masks while girls don’t.

I was thinking to myself that the jewels were getting collected rather quickly. Whenever that happens you know there’s going to be more to it than that. Which there was. All these dark hints, like not going up the stairs, were right. My bad feeling about Oji-sama was right.

So then we wind up with something that consistently bothers me. Treating people as inhuman objects. Poor Elis. Good thing Hiiragi sticks by her. Except breaking up the team is what the goal was, and then it gets really dragged out here. But justice prevails, everyone lives, and the bracelet is destroyed. Elis watches from the sidelines and the Wizards and Emulators go back to slugging it out in peace.

The main action was about Shaimaryl. I didn’t see that coming. All in all a pretty good watch. Not really outstanding but it wasn’t terrible either. It was helped along a bit with a particularly haunting ED.

Well I had been wondering what was going to happen, and there were two new people for Light to match wits with. Mello and N. Now, I have to say, they were not nearly as fun as L. Same sort of eclectic personalities, but just not the same. The magic really comes from Light and L, not Light just beating the crap out of anyone.

Was also interesting to bring the old girlfriend. Had a bit of a cat fight there. I guess almost every anime winds up with something like this. I found myself a bit sad with Light fooling his father on the death bed. Really though, I figured out the style of the series from these two things. The shit just keeps getting thicker.

The entire drama is based on the fact that almost nothing is resolved. Cliff hanger is built upon cliff hanger and it just keeps going. There aren’t a lot of series that manage to do this successfully so it seems new and original, and for the most part it is, because every series that does it does it with a different plot. Along with them being so few and far between, well, there you go.

Time scale. 6 years. That’s a long time. I had no idea it was going to take so long for a while. The time really flies when you’re having fun, or are under a lot of suspense. Minor detail: does the note book ever run out of pages? Light keeps tearing them out and writing in them left and right. Magic, I suppose.

Right, time for the ending. This has been pulling at me and bothering me quite a bit. N and Mello together create a team that surpasses L. Light beat L but they beat Light. If I had to say though there were two things L did wrong. At the very beginning reacting to the unannounced statement of the police that Kira was a student. As a result of that (a bit later on though) passing on the note book. That was the weak link in the chain.

Light really looses it though. After a whole, whole lot of stress, he finally looses it. Figuratively and literally. So close. Light was so close. That’s what really, really, really bothers me. I sort of think that Light should have gotten away with it. A dark ending to a dark series. He put so much work in. He was the protagonist. It just doesn’t seem fair.

To me him getting away with it isn’t a question of morals. It’s a question of story balance. The poor guy just got trapped in the Kira way of thinking. I think if Light had been successful and Kira had become a god, it would still have bothered me just as much. Trying to work out the good/bad of it is impossible for me.

The very end. Light lying in the light on the stairs as Ryuk writes his name down. He dies and L comes to collect him. A sort of understanding between two of the greatest minds. Or something. Maybe a silent apology. A haunting. It was a great scene anyway you interpret it.

I wonder though about the last scene with Misa. To me it sort of looks like that’s her going to commit suicide. Heart broken and shattered. Maybe just shattered and walking around in a daze. It really is a wrenching ending, and the aftermath in the world there must be terrific.

Quite a good series to watch, but maybe the tiniest bit too heavy to marathon. Maybe it’ll be a bit better the second time through. Probably some interesting details I missed at least.

Continuing with Happiness! as an anti-depressant. There was a cool summoned water thing. That appears only once, but looks awesome. All in all the series continued with more fluffy non-sense (Banzai!) and then made a sharp left turn and then ended. Pretty normal.

Most of it revolved around Ibuki, the umbrella girl. Ibuki’s servants crying over not being to make her happy. (Not sure what was going on there.) But then there’s bowling to kill that makes up for it. Little dark hints sprinkled in for good measure.

Then also obligatory beach episode. Complete with obligatory fear trial. And dark hints. Ibuki trying to pull something, if we’re being specific. Slightly later there’s the left turn I mentioned and Ibuki kidnaps a few people, and actually ticks me off by doing other assorted mean things.

Sumomo looks like she’s dead. Oops. Then of course we’re kept hanging, while Sumomo may or may not be dead while we’re brought up to speed with what’s going on. AKA, a history episode. Yuma has loads of power. Go figure.

Really, if I’m perfectly honest, this series did not leave a lot of an impression. I’m not sure what really went on and we still don’t know what’s really going on with Haruhi being an advanced magician. This may be because I was watching the series during a more depressing, traumatic one, but really. It just did not stand out. A bit of fluffy happiness (drum kit ba-dom-tss) but just not much happening worth mentioning.

Continuing with the madness that is Death note. It’s been a while since I’ve watched this next bit and I’m still not sure how to organize my thoughts on it. I’d have to say the highlight here really has been watching L and Light dodge around each other. I’ve been especially liking the visualization with them on roof tops. (Going all red and blue up there.)

Some of the luck hasn’t hurt either. I’d say Light had a bit of luck with his father having a heart attack from stress. I can’t say if it’s good or bad, but it certainly helped to keep the ball rolling. Then of course the drama only increases as Misa is arrested. I have to say that pissed me off a bit, how she was locked up like that.

Being a copycat like she was, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. It almost always happens with serial killers. It’s just she’s wow a she. And so wow. I don’t really know how to describe her. I was wondering about a female lead though. Found her.

It was rather clever for Light to go and lock himself up though. The whole setup with being in prison and all that. Such a long plan. For a while there I thought the plot shift was going to be permanent, it was that long of a plan. I figured along the lines of that well, it is called “Death Note,” as long as someone’s killing someone it’s on topic.

I was naive. He gets it back. Big time. Not without doing a 180 though. It turns out more like a break, so that all the things that were old seem new. Like being all intense, with the camera shaking. L does it once, and fails, and it happens a few more times as well. None of them were as good as the times it was used while writing names.

This break too was also things lightening up for a bit. There was some comedy in here. Like Watari being an expert sniper. The whole police chase there really cracked me up. “Light Knight” as well. It was good. And then it sours. L dies. What will happen now? L makes this series.

As a side note and almost entirely unrelated, I’ve never been in an especially large commercial city, but are there really giant TVs with sound? I can picture the TV, but sound too…? It seems like it would be rather distracting to residents.

Having just watched a bit of a more disturbing series and having a pressing need to go to sleep, and not being able to do so because of said disturbing series, I decided something light and fluffy and funny was in order. So I started Happiness! Wasn’t really sure about this one and the ratings I’ve seen weren’t so great, but I was desperate and it was what I had so it was what I watched.

Immediately one thing pissed me off. Waving the staff around before doing magic, complete with special music and background. Argh. Also, how do the staffs just magically (groan) stick to their backs? But really, for something listed as a comedy not feeling very funny. In fact, it’s feeling more like a genuine romance than something with incidental comedy.

A good joke or two though. I don’t know if I’ll ever tire for fresh ingredients for cooking being alive in the refrigerator. (I am scared of _cooked_ stuff being alive. And green.)  Jun, for some odd reason, also makes a rather good girl. Or it’s really clever of him. 50/50. Haruhi is seeming a bit over sensitive sometimes. (How’s that for something random tossed in.)

Finally the staffs talk. It really reminds me of Nanoha. A lot.

Also, there’s this mystery woman floating around with an umbrella. I wonder what part she’s going to play…

I am note looking forward to writing this entry. Death Note, at least the first bit of it. I was thinking “Will it live up to the hype?” So far, it has. Immediately there’s a visually impressive introduction with the world of the death gods and then it just goes on. Because even more than that suddenly Light is in some deep shit finding the book and killing off a guy or two.

Which it then gets worse. Or rather, next comes one of my favorite bits so far. Light starts really going at it, killing off loads of people. While he’s doing this it gets rather intense, the music, multiple cameras focusing on the notebook while writing. I really liked that effect. It’s like that when he’s convincing people he’s not Kira too.

They’re also not afraid of blood here. There’s blood everywhere really quite frequently. Specifically getting hit by a car one time was extraordinarily bloody. I mean damn.

If we switch to characters for a bit, it seems like Light is the protagonist. Until L was brought out, I really couldn’t imagine what the antagonist was going to be like. It gets even better with seeing in their heads. But really, I feel a bit strange calling them protagonist and antagonist. It feels wrong to sort of classify them like that. (I associate “good” with “protagonist”. This is much more grey.) I’m also wondering if there’s going to be a female lead, no sign yet.

Of course the plot thickens with Light’s father being a high ranking member of the police. Of course. He gets the inside information and so the FBI starts to investigate. So he kills them off. Of course. This time though, I really liked the FBI guy. I was also thinking that it may have been going a bit far. In movies and whatnot the FBI tends to get pissed off if you kill one of them.

No, that’s not good enough, he goes and kills all of them. Holy moly. I thought there’d be more of a reaction there. But there is one. The FBI guy’s wife. He really made things worse there. Just piling on more shit. So he goes to kill her. Just in time he figures out her name and kills her with directions to commit suicide in such a way that her body won’t be found for a maximum period of time. I wonder when it will be found?

So El Hazard: The Wanderers. This is a bit silly coming as a double post right in a row, but I’m a day behind (several from watching) and I really did watch it over two days, so it goes in two posts. (But read the other one first!)

A few oddities to start off with. The middle finger. I know what showing that to someone (ala flipping them off) means here. To be honest though, I have no idea what that means in Japan, but I caught two separate characters on more than one occasion using it to”point.” But it could also have been being used how I would use it. So I’m confused there, something to keep in mind.

It was also a bit odd how they were traveling in a group. Some walking, some riding, all going the same speed. A rather fast pace for walking. Oh well. Not as bad as everyone always still wearing their earth outfits. Either they’re making new ones or clothes of the time are a lot more durable than they are now. Or my pants are all just really cheap.

I mentioned Jinnai had the power to talk to the Bugrom. It’s been further explained that Nanami also has this same power. She even goes about charming them for a bit. Fujisawa-sensei also has his super strength. This time though it was only linked to drinking. Not to drinking and smoking. But more Makoto. His power was getting along with the ancient technology.

In fact it was almost the entire base premise of the OVA. This time it’s practically dropped off of the face of the planet. It’s barely acknowledged about three times the entire length of the series. Instead Makoto is a science boy rather smart and all that rot, but it’s not the same. The power is still there it’s just ignored. I find it a bit of a missed opportunity.

The story was starting to fall apart for a while too. There was an episode with background on the priestesses of fire and wind. I’m just not sure how this happened to link to anything else. It also felt like for a while that at every opportunity the princess would pop up with a bird in her hand. We get the idea already.

There were some highlights too. “You can worship me with no struggles.” Then Nanami reaches through the bars and starts strangling Jinnai. “I’m struggling.” That one struck me as particularly funny when I saw it. It was pretty funny with Nanami and Jinnai translating too. Some new interactions different than those in the OVA.

While that was going on the story focussed on Jinnai and the Bugrom for a bit. It was sort of a two part story going into that. I thought it might have been a lead up to the mid, but it was around when the OP and mid break changed. (The ED never changed.) But it got me wondering if the series would end with some sort of stable stalemate equilibrium. It did. Sort of.

Because what happened was the Princess was kidnapped. (Mario! Save peach!) I thought this would be a precursor to the main action, but it was indeed the main action. Spent the most god-awful long time trying to save her and finally managed to get her home. Lost her for a bit on a giant kite. Go figure.

So Makoto’s super powerful friends help out and all’s well. Except for God’s Eye coming after them. Go figure, I guess they needed to bring it back. I guess everything starts to get old by the end. This time around Ifurita wasn’t the sacrifice, but instead Makoto was. He promises to return.

For a while I thought he really did bite the dust. No such like. But I was sure if that he was coming back he’d be older. Surely you can’t work out dimensional (this does include time usually) transfer in a few days. Well (apparently) genius Makoto can. The biggest thing that ticked me off here was that the story was no longer circular. As far as I’m concerned that was the best bit about the OVA.

I probably won’t watch this again, but I did see something interesting. At one point Jinnai in a flashback had a Tenchi Muyo! manga. I guess the good stuff is always win.

For a bit of compare & contrast (as well as pure boredom) I decided to watch El Hazard: The Wanders and see if it lived up to the “alternate retelling” label on ANN and to what extent. So far, let’s just say it’s been interesting.

Characters. Jinnai is still delusional. Really delusional. Possibly worse than before.  He still understands the Bugrom though. There’s also no sign of the one princess. The little one. Fatora. She’s gone out the window. The big one, Rune, takes on much more of a role, and seems to have changed a bit. No sign of the fun cat armor either for ages either. I liked him, was worried he wouldn’t come back.

For the longest time, no sign of Ifurita. Her previous role as Makoto’s love interest seems to have been replaced by Rune. She’s younger and not cold. Everything that made her her has made her someone else now. The priestesses are all pretty similar as near as I can work out too. Nanami’s still there this time around, and she’s the same too. A lot of close encounters with her.

Which really, comes from substantially reworking the plot. For now it’s more or less about getting home, and they’re off wandering around to work out how that can be done. Meeting all the characters in rather different ways this time, specifically those priestesses. The catalyst for that last time just isn’t present this time.

The thing so far that bugs me most about the plot change is how they got to El Hazard. Makoto just sort of got lucky and created a device that randomly wound up doing a dimensional transfer. I just can’t swallow that. You may think it odd that I can believe in super technology thousands of years old showing up and taking charge, but really, that wasn’t random.

Continuing a bit more on Nagasarete Airantou.

We all know how Ikuto has the thing with “zettai muri” and going great guns about overcoming whatever it is, only to be beaten by it in the end. What’s slightly less obvious I think is that (I’m not counting or anything) he seems to go through this with every girl. Whichever girl it is says it’s impossible and he tries to prove otherwise. The only one who seems to have caught onto this is Suzu. Go Suzu.

I wonder if that is part of the reason Suzu and Ikuto seem to fit. No clue really. Speaking of Suzu though, she usually has the big, watery eyes whenever someone mentions daifku, right? Well, Rin had the big watery eyes once. Only other girl I can think of that’s had them. She had them for entirely different reasons, but had them non-the-less. It’s a good look.

Around that same time when dealing with the carpentry at Rin’s house, I sort of noticed how the male animals take the place of actual males in the house. I wonder if that happens at many different houses on the island. For that matter, I wonder what the affinity the average person on Airantou really does have with animals. You don’t really see everyone talking with them, only the Ikuto crew.

Finally, also got to the episode with Machi-nee cooking. The atmosphere in the house then was really brilliant. An excellent parody on everything ever meant to be spooky in anime. That may not be the right way of saying it, but that doesn’t make it any less great. The music, shiny eyes, un-escapable scenes of horror, it worked really well.

So this would be (roughly) on the middle third of Kaze no Stigma, if I’ve got everything straight at least. Ren is very physical. He keeps on going up and hugging Kazuma and whatnot. Even more disturbing is how Ayako doesn’t seem to have any clothes. All girls have clothes. Lots of clothes.

I know it’s different with the school uniforms, but even on the weekends when there’s no school it seems like she’s still wearing the same thing. I seem to remember going out and picking an outfit she laid out three identical uniforms and picked her favorite. This just occurred to me, but she could be a bit of a tom boy. Although I’ll admit going out to dinner she was wearing a dress once.

Dinner, of course, with Kazuma. Talk about a 180. The way she acts has entirely changed. She’s still ticked off with him, but she’s so much nicer. A switch from opening hating to falsely hating and secretly liking Kazuma. Although some of that hate may be genuine. Kazuma does have a lot of fun messing with her. It doesn’t help with the old man trying to fix them up either.

The old man being Ayako’s father. He was saying that Kazuma is ncessary for the Kannagi’s future. I have to wonder how they survived at all. It seems like they’re getting killed off and injured left and right. Not only that but there appear to be about three women in the family. Ayako, Misao, and Kazuma’s mother. Those are the ones I remember seeing. Where are the rest of them?

If things like Misao keep happening, and Kazuma, it’s got to be terrible. Specifically Misao, and again with the Tsuwakbakis and that guy, it’s like the moral here is beware of people just giving away power. It seems like it turns out horribly. Really saw some of Kazumas “evil” nature then.

Specifically that nature was really highlighted and contrasted by the pixe sitting on his head and whatnot constantly making cute noises. It would have seemed merely in character if it hadn’t been being pointed out to us. Jumping back quickly to the Tsuwabakis and the one that kicked the bucket, a special ED with Ren then, lying in the night.

A quick look at the ED. Lying there in the grass with the wind mills looks really relaxing. The EDs have been alternating between a daylight and a evening one. Or they were. They’re not anymore, which is pretty poor. Now it’s just the day light one. I imagine lying under windmills to be relaxing, but the night time one’s music really set the mood. (So that’s the one I like better.)