aloe, dream

Well, I’m feeling the hiatus mode from all the holiday party scene, and I’ve not been able to watch as much anime, sadly [or blog]. *dizzy* The courses have begun once again and I’ve spent loads of time standing in lines in order to get class overrides since my transcripts have magically not shown up in records. Hehe, anyway. Over the break I managed to finish a few shows, and just wanted to jot out some simple thoughts on Black Lagoon, NHK ni Youkoso!, and Shakugan no Shana series…. also some other quick notes.

Black Lagoon :-24: Series Close

Firstly, I have to say I like the way Demian wrapped up his thoughts on BL, and I may not have much to add, but I literally jotted notes evenings back in the ‘06. The first phrase I could have about Lagoon is “powerful stuff”. In the blog world BL received attention but as a retro to 2006 I think it stands out. Hands down, even without experiencing some of the best of 2006, it ranks with the popular Ouran and Melancholy.
Shortly, it has meaning and enables the viewer to feel unaccustomed (in my case); the world of the living and undead, and the line of the twilight. In the end it shows that all existence is sad in a way, but meaningful, and I’m quite content that Rock decided that the place he was standing for the entire ride was indeed the correct one. Long live those of the twilight ^^.

NHK ni Youkoso! :-24: Series Close

I didn’t happen to read many blogs that reviewed or segmented the end of NHK, but my opinion is that it did well for straying from the manga (which is still lingering in concession). I guess the line between Hiki and Normi is very close, similar to love|hate, or Satou|Misaki. The end was clean, not confusing, and sentimental in ways; though I really wish to ponder that Satou and Misaki agreed that they need each other for good. In terms of meaning, I didn’t feel like grasping what it meant to be socially withdrawn, I get the picture but whether NHK has a job to do or does it well, I’m not sure, and on the topic of suicide it seems like a brief dream after reading something like The Myth of Sisyphus. I guess these things project and strike well in a place like Japan where it is truly a problem, but I don’t know how I could help with this problem since I don’t live in the great JP nor have I encountered many hiki’s to talk to; suicide is meh, I feel the majority of anime viewers would hope for not-suicide in the event of meeting someone suicidal (because it’s no fun, of course). So bla bla, NHK was enjoyable, I think I ranked it in anidb, but who knows.

Shakugan no Shana :: HeeheHO

So earlier I posted that I was going to attempt to watch Shana, Mushishi, and H+C II before the year’s end, but yea, didn’t happen. I finished up Shana before the 10 days of family parties and run-a-rounds. Anyway, I thought it was cute, but hmm, I very much felt the story had more room; easily could have told it to be an extensive light novel. In the end, it felt nice, but I didn’t hug my pillow and sigh “Damn…” after it was over.
I will add, the “world” and concept of Shana is A+. It isn’t quite magic, but we would consider it magic; as if it were magic explained in a different way. Yet it also has a fantasy atmosphere with the floating mountains, monsters or whatever. So cheers to interesting fantasty/magic world, even though it was explained more like a space world.

Baaam! So I was going to throw in some stuff about how FANTASTIC the recently subbed episodes of Code Geass and Bakumatsu … Irohanihoheto, but I’m tired and I’ve a 7:30am class, bleh. So I leave with this nice little live-action cosplay youtubeness [link] she’s nice!

Ryan A