Posts Tagged “Impressions”

As a fan of the the first anime series and of the originating manga, I was interested in how this new version, FMA Brotherhood, would turn out. I was initially optimistic and I haven’t been disappointed so far after watching the first four episodes (through FUNimation’s video portal, just to clarify).

I like how Brotherhood is running faster than its predecessor. Shou Tucker’s story originally occupied two episodes; it’s now been told in one. A similar condensing happened with Cornello and Lior, with Rose’s “revived” brother and Ed in chains being cut, omissions I’m fine with. The mining town incident with Lt. Yoki was wrapped up in a few lines during an office conversation. I think the Clause/Majihal and the train hostage situation are being passed over entirely for the sake of a quicker storyline, which may be for the better. Those took place before Ed got his State Alchemist title, anyway, and it would benefit the series to not waste time on events of the past and instead focus on the main narrative.

Even though this remake seems “darker” – however you wish to read that – there are still the same moments of humor, e.g., Al being confused as Fullmetal during the brothers’ first appearances and Ed being sensitive about his height.

Something that bothered me about the first series, now that I look back at it, was Michiru Oshima’s orchestral score because it could be overbearing at times, particularly in the last quarter of the series. Akira Senju is handling the soundtrack this time around and though there are some tracks with similar dramatic vamps, there have also been less bombastic ones including a sullen, Middle Eastern-sounding string piece in ep. 3 (15:25-16:37 on Funi’s timecode) when Al was telling Rose about how he came to be a suit of armor. Regarding the opening and ending sequences, I didn’t care for either at first but then I grew to like most of YUI’s “again” – the quick bridge still annoys me a bit.

P.S. Alex Leavitt wrote an interesting post recently about the art design differences between the two series based on their first episodes.

I have been trying to stay away from others’ detailed first impressions of winter premieres so as to not influence my first viewings of them. Sadly, Twitter is more pervasive in potentially spoiling such things but at least I got a sense of what a segment of the community feels about certain series after only one episode.

In this post, I will provide my short reactions to Akikan!, White Album, Maria Holic, Kurokami, and Asu no Yoichi! – short because earlier reactions from others likely recounted the plots satisfactorily and because I don’t see the need to be garrulous over just the first episodes. In addition, I made a list of commonalities among most of the group that came to mind from watching them all in a row, the exception being Asu no Yoichi!
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Regular meetings for my anime club began last Wednesday and Thursday and while it was a little odd watching the new management running the operation, I figured I would at least get a feel for the larger, slightly newer crowd and also a few series I hadn’t sampled before. What follows are my impressions of what was shown during the first three sessions.
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I really liked Macross Plus and I’m wondering how Sharon Apple sounds when she “sings” since she’s an AI with a computer generated voice. The character interaction within conversations seemed natural and there was always something interesting whether it was the test piloting action, Isamu hitting on Lucy and later Myung, or Myung dealing with her past and talking with Guld. Definitely going to be watching for the next three weeks. Also, the planet Eden looks a lot like Earth, doesn’t it?

Scott was right when he criticized the commercial breaks and the interstitials. Ad breaks happened less frequently during Macross Plus than it did during Tokko but they are still a little too close together. The interstitial jokes were kind of funny but the high-pitched girl’s voice was annoying.

Like any other Sci-Fi Channel show, the credits were squished down for about 30 seconds to allow for a promo to take up most of the screen before expanding back to full size. Besides that, I thought it was a pretty good programming block (they kept Tokko widescreen!) and it’s nice to have another option for watching dramatic anime on basic cable besides Adult Swim.

P.S. The Twilight Zone episode that aired after the block was one I hadn’t seen before and pretty interesting so if you’re still up at 1am and don’t want to watch Inuyasha (they’re still running reruns of that?!?), you can fall asleep to old-school scifi. Then again, I guess you don’t have that problem if you record the block on your PVR!

I had these three on my anticipated list and decided to watch the raws because I want to get a feel for the new anime without all those pesky colored words getting in the way. At least for these first episodes. I’ll also try to post my reactions to other anime that are premiering that I also happen to download raw. Then I’ll run to back to my translated-for me-so-I-don’t-have-to-infer format of watching anime until the next batch comes along.

Hitohira:

The first episode of this romantic school comedy was pretty entertaining considering that I couldn’t understand much of the dialogue and thus missed some jokes. But I could follow the faces and get what was going on. Anyway, nervous girl Mugi Asai and her good friend enter high school and within a couple days, Mugi and a black-haired male classmate are coerced into joining a drama club by the president Nono and her officers. A blond-haired, energetic girl sees another drama club’s performance of “Prima Donna” at the entering festival and decides to join that one. Nono, the leader of the former, is quick to make a distinction between the two and it looks they’ll confront each other in episode 2. I’m definitely gonna have to watch this again when the subs come out so I can get more of the finer details, like what the two clubs are actually named.
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In 2035, the student population of Japan’s school system is much lower than in the past due to the declining birth rate and enthusiasm is at about the same level. Apparently this takes place after the Examination War Era and many young people just eschew school and take up part-time jobs to get a jump start on their futures. It is this dreary educational climate that Manami Amamiya (just call her Manabi) transfers into Seioh High School and her genki nature is just the catalyst the school needs to make school exciting again.
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I had downloaded the first two episodes of Asatte no Houkou a couple months ago and forgot about it until I found out the anime club needed a 12/13-episode series to fill the slot Sukisho will vacate in a couple weeks. So I watched those initial two I had and found it interesting but found it significantly sluggish due to the necessary exposition and the characters not believing what had just happened to them. Fortunately I enjoyed the next couple episodes as the main characters became somewhat acclimated to their situation so I’m currently to get through the remaining episodes as quickly as possible.
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Momoko trains in martial arts under her father but he fears the strength of the family’s bloodline will weaken unless she gets married. She willingly decides to persue Kouji, whose father is good friends with Momoko’s. Kouji gave up martial arts when he was young but still possesses great strength; instead, he is studying to become a prosecutor and defends himself by citing codes of Japanese law. Read the rest of this entry »

What if you gained the power to kill specific people with a small time delay and even be able to specify how they died? Would you use it for good or for awesome evil? Light Yagami picked up a Death Note one day and found himself with great power. He decides to use it to cleanse the world of criminals but how long can he go before police forces take notice and pursue him? Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight, I watched the first dubbed episodes of Trinity Blood and Bleach as well as continuing my weekly Eureka Seven fix. I found Trinity’s dub to be pretty good and Bleach was also enjoyable…for the five characters that were heard. I’ll have to watch a couple more of each (especially Bleach) to get a good feel of the English adaptations but for now, I’ll just say they’re not bad. Read the rest of this entry »